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THE  GIEL  WHO  EARNS  HER  OWN 
LIVING 


The  Girl  Who  Earns 
Her  Own  Living 

BY 

ANNA  STEESE  RICHARDSON 


NEW  YORK 
B.  W.  DODGE  &  COMPANY 

1909 


Copyright,  1905,  1906,  1907,  1908,  1909,  by 
THE  CROWELL  PUBLISHING  CO., 

Publishers  of  the  Woman's  Home  Companion 

Copyright,  1909,  by 
B.  W.  DODGE  &  COMPANY 

Registered  at  Stationers^  Hall^  London 
{All  Bights  Reserved) 


Printed  iu  the  United  States  of  America 


DEDICATED 
TO 

Gerteude  Battles  Lane 
whose  cordial  support  and  unfaltering  faith 
in  the  work  which  this  book  represents 
have  vitalized  its  pages 


169762 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTEB  PAGE 

I   Stenography   1 

II    Salesmanship   17 

III  Trained  and  Semi-Trained  Nursing   31 

IV  Art  for  the  Girl  Who  Must  Be  Self-Sup- 

PORTINO   46 

V   Dressmaking   60 

VI    Work  in  Libraries  i   74 

VII   Duties  of  the  Companion,  Secretary  and 

Governess   87 

VIII    Millinery   100 

IX  Telephone  Operating   113 

X  Working  for  Uncle  Sam   125 

XI    In  the  Beauty-Shop   135 

XII   The  Girl  in  the  Factory   157 

XIII  Social  Service   173 

XIV  Proof-reading    and    work    in  Publishing 

Houses   183 

XV  Kindergartening   200 

XVI  Domestic  Science  for  Teachers  and  Social 

Workers   210 

XVII   Physical  Culture  Plus  Dancing  and  Elocu- 
tion   221 

XVIII    The  Girl  and  the  Pen  233 

XIX   The  Girl  the  Business  World  Wants   250 

XX   Living  Expenses  of  the  Self-Supporting  Girl 

IN  Big  Cities   262 

vii 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 


Transcribing  Phonographic  Dictation   1 

Student-Nurse  Assisting  the  House  Physican   31 

Class  in  Applied  Design   46 

A  Typical  Scene  in  a  Dressmaking  School   60 

Carrying  the  Library  into  the  Public*  School   74 

Operators  at  Work  in  a  Telephone  Exchange   113 

Girls  at  Work  in  a  School  of  Manicuring,  Hairdress- 
ING  AND  Massage   135 

Girls  Making  Crepe-paper  Boxes  and  Novelties   157 

Scene  in  a  CIty  Farm-School   173 

Student-Teachers  Training  in  Domestic  Science   210 

Applicants  for  General  Office  Work  Crowd  the  Busi- 
ness Marts  250 

Dining-room  in  Trowmabt  Inn,  New  York  City  262 


is 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 


AccoEDiNG  to  the  report  issued  by  the  Census 
Bureau  in  1907,  entitled  ''Women  at  Work,'' 
the  census  enumerators  of  1900  found  that 
nearly  five  million  women  and  girls  of  the  Unit- 
ed States  were  engaged  in  what  are  known  as 
gainful  occupations,  and  were  therefore  either 
partly  or  wholly  self-supporting.  Three-fifths 
of  these  workers  were  found  in  six  occupations, 
domestic  service  leading,  with  farm  labor  a 
close  second  because  of  the  large  number  of  col- 
ored women  employed  on  Southern  plantations ; 
dressmaking,  laundry  work,  teaching  and  actual 
farming  followed  in  the  order  named.  Seventh 
in  point  of  numbers  employed  were  the  textile 
mill  operatives.  Saleswomen  came  tenth  in 
numerical  order,  and  office  workers  still  further 
down  the  list. 

At  the  time  this  census  was  taken,  there  were 
23,485,559  women  in  the  United  States,  of  whom 
20.6  per  cent,  were  engaged  in  gainful  occu- 
pations. Students  of  economics  and  sociology, 
who  have  gathered  statistics  regarding  women 
wage-earners  since  that  census  was  taken,  an- 

xi 


xii  AUTHOR'S  PEEFACE 


nounce  that  on  January  1,  1909,  the  number  of 
women  employed  on  wages  or  any  form  of  regu- 
lar pay  in  the  United  States  had  leaped  to  six 
millions.  At  the  present  rate  of  increase,  when 
the  next  census  is  taken,  the  number  of  women 
workers  will  have  increased  out  of  all  propor- 
tion to  the  increase  in  population. 

In  other  words,  the  feminine  conquest  of  the 
industrial  world  in  America  is  practically  com- 
plete, and  woman's  financial  independence  is 
practically  assured.  She  has  invaded  and  now 
occupies  firmly  all  but  nine  of  the  303  fields  of 
wage-earning  listed  by  the  United  States  Cen- 
sus Bureau.  Furthermore,  her  education  and 
interests  all  tend  toward  the  evacuation  of  do- 
mestic service  and  farm  labor  in  favor  of  the 
various  trades  and  professions,  or  a  distinctly 
mercantile  or  commercial  career. 

Question  girls  graduating  from  district  vil- 
lage or  city  schools,  and  you  cannot  fail  to  mark 
this  tendency.  Department  editors  of  women's 
magazines  are  deluged  with  letters  from  coun- 
try girls  all  over  the  United  States,  begging  for 
information  as  to  gainful  operations  in  manu- 
facturing or  business  centers. 

In  a  mid- West  city,  I  studied  the  bent  heads 
of  girls  in  an  upper  grade  grammar  class,  taking 
their  final  examinations. 

^^How  many  of  these  girls  will  enter  the  high 
school?"  I  asked. 


AUTHOR'S  PREFACE  xiii 


^'Ten  per  cent./'  answered  the  principal. 

Fifty  per  cent,  will  go  into  stores  as  cash- 
girls  and  wrappers,  or  take  up  the  study  of 
stenography.  The  remaining  40  per  cent,  will 
find  employment  in  factories  or  in  dressmaking 
or  millinery  shops  as  apprentices. 

The  country  over,  only  one  girl  out  of  every 
hundred  entering  the  elementary  schools  com- 
pletes the  high  school  course.  This  means  that 
99  out  of  every  100  leave  school  at  the  expira- 
tion of  their  last  year  in  the  grammar  schools, 
or  even  sooner. 

What  becomes  of  the  ninety  and  nine?  For 
a  time,  at  least,  the  vast  majority  pursue  some 
gainful  occupation  and  then  marry.  During  the 
period  of  wage-earning,  the  ninety  and  nine 
want  to  secure  the  highest  possible  pay. 

In  the  last  sentence  lies  the  excuse  for  this 
book.  It  has  been  written  to  meet  the  needs  of 
the  American  girls  graduating  from  grammar 
or  high  school  and  facing  the  problem  of  self- 
support.  It  has  been  written  to  answer  the 
question:  ^^How  shall  I  earn  my  living?"  a 
question  which  is  hurled  at  every  school-teacher, 
every  writer  for  women,  every  editor  of  a  maga- 
zine or  newspaper  in  the  United  States  to-day. 

For  the  past  five  years  I  have  been  answering 
that  question  in  personal  letters  written  to  more 
than  ten  thousand  girls.  These  answers,  and 
the  result  of  five  years  of  investigation,  I  am 


xiy  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 


giving  in  this  book.  The  chapters  are  not  ar- 
ranged in  the  order  of  occupation  named  by  the 
United  States  Census,  but  according  to  the  num- 
ber of  questions  received  concerning  the  gain- 
ful occupations  which  ambitious  girls  desire  to 
enter. 

Each  chapter  has  been  written  with  the  hope 
that  it  may  make  clear  to  would-be  workers  the 
personal  qualifications  needed  to  succeed  in  a 
trade,  profession  or  commercial  career,  the  time 
and  the  money  required*  for  preparation,  the 
best  method  of  securing  a  position  when  that 
preparation  is  completed,  the  salaries  paid,  and 
the  chances  for  advancement. 

If  this  book  shows  one  girl  the  folly  of  enter- 
ing upon  a  career  for  which  she  is  unsuited,  and 
if  it  helps  another  girl  to  find  the  work  for 
which  she  is  best  qualified  by  temperament  and 
training,  it  will  have  accomplished  its  object. 

In  conclusion,  I  desire  to  express  to  the  edi- 
tors of  the  Woman's  Home  Companion  and  the 
Philadelphia  Press,  my  appreciation  for  per- 
mission to  use  material  published  in  their  col- 
umns, where  an  unusual  amount  of  space  is  al- 
lotted to  the  problems  of  the  self-supporting 
woman. 


THE  GIRL  WHO  EARNS  HER 
OWN  LIVING 


CHAPTER  I 

STENOGBAPHY 

^^When  in  doubt,  study  stenography,''  has 
been  the  motto  of  the  would-be  business  girl 
for  the  past  ten  years,  with  the  result  that 
thousands  of  young  women,  never  intended  by 
education,  training  or  natural  ability  to  become 
stenographers,  have  reduced  office  wages  and 
overcrowded  business  marts,  while  hundreds  of 
their  sisters,  who  might  develop  into  admirable 
office  workers,  have  drawn  back,  alarmed  by  the 
ever-increasing  army  of  incompetents. 

There  is  room  in  the  business  world  for  the 
competent,  earnest  stenographer,  and  oppor- 
tunities for  advancement  were  never  better  nor 
more  numerous  than  to-day.  There  is  no  rea- 
son at  all  for  the  existence  of  the  incompetent 
worker.  She  will  find  thousands  there  before 
her. 

1 


STENOGRAPHY 


Please  bear  in  mind  that  stenography  is  a 
trade,  and  you  must  work  at  it  months,  and  even 
years,  before  you  become  an  expert  and  draw 
the  same  salary  an  expert  milliner  or  fitter  does. 
There  is  no  royal  road  to  success  in  stenography 
simply  because  your  parents  can  afford  to  pay 
for  your  lessons.  By  earnest  study  and  prac- 
tice you  can  advance  yourself  more  rapidly  than 
can  any  teacher  or  school  in  America. 

Perhaps  you  have  decided  that  you  are  what 
might  be  termed  a  ' '  born  stenographer. '  ^  Then 
you  possess  the  following  characteristics : 

You  are  accurate.  Stenography  is  built  on 
accuracy. 

You  have  great  power  of  concentration. 
Without  that  you  will  never  master  the  me- 
chanical side  of  stenography  or  develop  the 
fundamental  principles  of  shorthand. 

You  are  neat.  No  employer  of  any  standing 
will  send  out  letters  daubed  with  blots  and 
blurs  from  erasing  and  rewriting. 

You  are  a  good  speller  and  grammarian,  and 
have  a  fair  knowledge  of  English.  If  you  can- 
not spell  correctly  writing  longhand,  how  much 
more  confused  will  you  become  when  you  have 
to  transcribe  stenographic  notes?  Neither  is 
there  time  in  a  busy  office  for  you  to  consult  a 
dictionary. 

You  are  close-mouthed.  The  stenographer  of 
even  a  small  and  unimportant  firm  is  often  en- 


STENOGRAPHY 


trasted  with  secrets  that  hold  success  or  fail- 
ure for  her  employer.  If  you  are  the  sort  of 
girl  who  simply  must  tell  some  one  everything 
you  know,  don't  try  to  be  a  stenographer. 

You  have  quickness  of  mind  and  movement. 
Without  these  you  will  find  it  difficult  to  take 
erratic  and  sometimes  almost  inaudible  dicta- 
tion without  annoying  your  employer  by  ques- 
tions. 

You  have  good  eyesight;  or  if  you  have  any 
visual  defect,  it  can  be  minimized  by  learning 
what  is  known  as  the  touch  system  on  the  ma- 
chine, and  using  glasses  while  at  work.  A 
stenographer  or  office  assistant  of  any  sort  uses 
her  eyes  practically  eight  hours  a  day. 

And  of  course  your  hearing  is  perfect. 

Does  this  list  of  natural  qualifications  sound 
formidable?  Then  do  not  take  up  stenography, 
for  as  sure  as  you  think  any  one  of  them  unim- 
portant, so  surely  will  you  drift  into  the  rank 
of  incompetents. 

Perhaps  you  possess  these  qualities,  or  are 
willing  to  acquire  them  by  study  and  practice. 
Then  how  shall  you  begin? 

If  you  are  attending  the  public  schools  of 
your  city,  and  planning  to  take  stenography  a 
year  or  two  from  now,  do  not  wait.  If  your 
school  offers  stenography  as  an  elective  branch, 
take  it  by  day.  If  not,  enter  an  evening  class 
two  or  three  nights  in  the  week,  and  study; 


4 


STENOGRAPHY 


stenography  slowly  and  conscientiously,  during 
your  last  year  or  two  in  day  school.  If  it  is  not 
taught  free  in  any  of  your  city  schools,  then 
see  what  the  Young  Women's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation or  some  working-girl's  organization  of- 
fers you  in  the  way  of  a  night  class  at  reason- 
able rates.  It  will  take  from  seven  months  to 
one  year  for  you  to  learn  thoroughly  a  good 
method  of  shorthand  in  this  way,  but  in  the  end, 
working  slowly  but  earnestly,  you  will  have  ab- 
sorbed the  fundamental  principles  of  what  is 
nothing  more  nor  less  than  a  new  language.  In 
fact,  Dickens  is  said  to  have  called  shorthand 
^'harder  than  ten  new  languages.''  At  Cooper 
Institute,  in  New  York  City,  where  a  generous 
endowment  has  established  a  free  course,  no 
pupil  is  permitted  to  complete  the  lessons  in 
less  than  a  year,  which  would  indicate  tljat  ^*get- 
your-diploma-quick''  methods  in  stenography 
do  not  pay. 

If  you  live  in  a  small  town,  and  have  not  the 
money  to  pay  your  way  through  a  city  business 
college,  then  learn  stenography  through  some 
reliable  correspondence  school.  When  you  feel 
well-grounded  in  the  rudiments,  take  a  few  spe- 
cial lessons  for  speed.  The  only  assistance  you 
will  need  for  home  study  consists  of  a  hired 
machine,  and  some  member  of  the  family  to  dic- 
tate to  you. 

If  you  have  funds  to  attend  a  business  col- 


STENOGRAPHY 


5 


lege,  select  a  small  one  where  you  will  receive 
individual  instruction,  and  a  school  where  only 
stenography,  typewriting,  spelling  and  English 
are  taught.  The  average  employer  gives  pref- 
erence to  the  girl  grounded  in  stenography  over 
one  who  has  a  smattering  of  boyokkeeping, 
stenography  and  general  oflSce  work.  Beware 
of  the  school  that  offers  a  diploma  at  the  end 
of  three  months. 

Be  sure  you  read  your  notes,  even  single 
words,  as  you  are  learning. 

This  is  the  secret  of  quick,  clean  transcrip- 
tion. Of  what  avail  is  it  to  write  a  hundred 
words  a  minute  and  then  take  thirty  minutes 
trying  to  decipher  those  same  hundred  words? 
Nothing  is  more  detrimental  to  your  interests 
than  slow  transcription. 

Do  not  neglect  your  typewriting.  Select  one 
of  the  standard  machines,  and  practice  on  it 
until  you  become  rapid  and  accurate,  and  know 
every  trick  of  the  machine.  When  you  are  ready 
for  a  position,  the  knowledge  of  the  machine 
will  be  of  enormous  value  to  you.  Nearly  all 
agencies  of  typewriter  builders  maintain  an 
employment  bureau,  and  the  girl  who  is  an  ex- 
pert on  their  machine  is  always  recommended 
first.  After  taking  an  examination  you  can  en- 
roll at  these  employment  agencies  without 
charge. 

Most  excellent  positions  are  secured  through 


6 


STENOGRAPHY 


advertisements.  If  an  employer  asks  for  a  per- 
sonal interview,  be  on  hand  at  the  first  hour 
named,  not  the  last,  and  be  prepared  to  take  any 
test  which  may  await  you.  If  he  asks  for  an 
application  by  mail,  make  this  as  brief  as  possi- 
ble and  to  the  point.  State  your  qualifications, 
including  speed  in  taking  dictation,  the  machine 
you  use,  and  your  references. 

A  very  good  time  for  an  out-of-town  girl  to 
apply  for  work  in  a  large  city,  like  New  York, 
Boston  or  Chicago,  is  July  1st,  when  regular 
stenographers  begin  to  take  vacations.  Agen- 
cies then  enroll  ^^substitutes.''  A  girl  who  is 
quick  and  adaptable  will  be  kept  busy  all  sum- 
mer as  substitute ;  then  in  the  fall  a  regular  po- 
sition is  sure  to  crop  up  in  one  of  the  offices 
where  she  substituted  to  the  satisfaction  of  all 
concerned. 

The  small-town  girl  coming  to  the  city  will 
find  that  most  of  the  advertisers  offer  six  or 
eight  dollars  a  week.  If  she  is  in  dire  need  of 
a  position,  she  must  start  at  this  salary  and  then 
watch  for  something  better.  If  she  really  is  an 
expert,  she  can  find  something  better  by  wait- 
ing, provided  she  enrolls  with  the  right  agency 
and  makes  a  favorable  impression. 

Fifteen  dollars  a  week  is  the  average  salary 
of  a  competent  girl  in  New  York.  The  excep- 
tional girl  works  her  way  up  as  high  as  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  dollars  a  week.   In  many  small 


STENOGRAPHY 


7 


cities  a  girl  is  compelled  to  start  at  five  dollars 
a  week,  no  matter  what  her  ability;  but  even 
here  there  are  opportunities  for  advancement, 
which  depend  entirely  upon  the  girl. 

In  a  few  offices  the  phonograph  has  replaced 
stenographers,  but  it  has  not  yet  come  into  gen- 
eral use,  nor  does  it  promise  to  do  so.  The  girl 
who  transcribes  phonograph  records  does  not 
need  to  know  stenography.  Her  employer,  at 
his  leisure,  dictates  his  letter  to  a  sensitized 
phonograph  record.  The  phonograph  machine 
is  then  set  beside  the  operator's  typewriter. 
She  starts  and  stops  the  dictation  or  alters  the 
speed  at  her  will  by  means  of  a  pedal.  Both 
ears  are  covered  by  receivers  such  as  telephone 
operators  use.  They  are  exactly  like  those  em- 
ployed in  the  penny  arcades  when  you  listen  to 
phonograph  music. 

The  operator,  concentrating  on  what  comes  to 
her  over  the  wire,  transcribes  this  directly  on 
the  typewriter.  This  work  requires  perfect 
hearing,  remarkable  powers  of  concentration, 
and  quick  wit  to  separate  sentences  and  to  punc- 
tuate, in  case  the  man  dictating  does  not  furnish 
paragraphs  and  punctuation.  In  this  work  men 
have  been  more  successful  than  women,  who 
generally  find  phonograph  dictation  nerve-rack- 
ing. The  salary  paid  is  about  the  same  as  that 
for  general  stenographic  work,  $15  a  week. 

The  girl  who  wishes  to  use  stenography  as 


8 


STENOGEAPHY 


the  first  step  in  a  business  career  is  the  girl  who 
is  business-like  from  the  very  beginning. 

First,  she  makes  sure  of  her  trade,  stenog- 
raphy, before  she  applies  for  a  position.  Then 
she  selects  her  position  with  judgment.  She 
does  not  accept  the  first  offer  of  work  unthink- 
ingly, unquestioningly. 

If  she  desires  to  advance  rapidly  she  seeks  a 
position  with  a  small  concern,  where  she  will 
not  lose  her  individuality,  and  where  she  will 
come  in  direct  contact  with  her  employers.  The 
employer  is  always  looking  for  good  people  to 
advance;  but  often  where  there  are  chiefs  and 
various  assistants  between  stenographer  and 
employer,  the  latter  does  not  know  that  good 
timber  is  going  to  waste  in  his  forest  of  ofl&ce 
clerks. 

If  she  is  interested  in  a  certain  line  of  busi- 
ness or  a  certain  profession,  she  seeks  her  posi- 
tion where  the  work  will  be  congenial.  If  she 
has  the  commercial  instinct,  she  will  advance 
more  rapidly  with  a  wholesale  cloth,  shoe  or 
la,ce  house  than  with  a  publishing  house.  If  she 
thinks  she  would  make  a  good  saleswoman,  let 
her  enter  a  real-estate  office  and  study  land 
values,  rental  problems,  commissions,  etc.,  while 
she  handles  the?  fi;rm.'s  correspondence.  The 
stenographer  has  the  very  best  opportunities 
for  grasping  the  firm's  method  and  details  of 


STENOGRAPHY 


9 


the  business,  because  she  can  study  the  situa- 
tion from  both  sides  of  the  correspondence. 

If  she  means  to  be  a  lawyer,  then  by  all  means 
she  should  seek  a  position  with  a  law  firm,  and, 
if  possible,  with  some  bright,  ambitious  lawyer 
who  has  not  yet  acquired  an  influential  partner 
or  a  corporation  position  and  a  staff  of  clerical 
help.  If  she  shows  a  natural  grasp  of  legal 
problems,  her  employer  will  be  the  first  to  find 
this  out. 

Many  girls  start  wrong.  They  want  a  posi- 
tion so  badly  that  they  do  not  stop  to  investigate 
the  conditions  under  which  they  are  to  work. 
Do  not  make  this  mistake.  Go  into  details  with 
your  prospective  employer.  Have  a  very  clear 
understanding  with  him  as  to  hours,  half  holi- 
days and  vacations,  your  hour  for  lunch,  and 
extra  pay  allowed  for  overtime,  especially  in 
the  evening.  Your  employer  will  not  resent 
this  demand  for  a  perfect  understanding.  Rath- 
er he  will  respect  you  the  more  for  asking  it  in 
advance,  instead  of  accepting  the  position  blind- 
ly and  then  complaining  afterward  about  the 
hours,  etc. 

After  having  been  informed  as  to  hours  and 
having  accepted  them  as  satisfactory,  keep 
them.  If  you  live  at  a  distance  and  know  that 
you  cannot  get  to  the  office  as  early  as  the  man 
asks,  tell  him  so  and  decline  the  position.  Do 


10 


STENOGEAPHY 


not  take  the  place  and  then  invent  fresh  excuses 
daily. 

Directly  yon  bfegin  yonr  work,  stndy  the  tech- 
nical phrases  pecnliar  to  the  trade  or  profession 
or  line  of  goods  of  which  you  must  write  day 
after  day.  Every  trade  or  profession  has  these 
phrases.  It  is  yards  and  bolts  in  dry-goods, 
pounds  and  barrels  in  groceries.  You  will  have 
certain  regular  correspondents,  too.  Be  accu- 
rate in  the  use  of  firm-names  and  addresses,  so 
that  when  your  chief  tells  you  to  write  the 

Browns''  to  hurry  up  that  order  of  wire  nails 
you  will  know  that  it  is  James  Hayden  Brown  & 
Son  without  asking  him  which  Brown  or  having 
to  hunt  through  the  files.  And  if  your  new  em- 
ployer says  Brown  Bros.,  and  no  more,  it  is  your 
business  to  find  out  somewhere,  somehow,  in  the 
main  office,  who  Brown  Bros,  are,  and  where  to 
direct  their  letter.  If  you  are  looking  for  ad- 
vancement do  not  turn  the  question-mark  on 
your  employer.  He  hires  you  to  save  him  trou- 
ble and  annoyance.  If  you  cannot  imagine  what 
he  meajis,  make  a  guess,  until  you  can  reach 
the  other  room  to  ask  the  other  clerks. 

If  sometimes  you  have  to  play  the  role  of 
office  boy  and  meet  callers,  learn  to  do  this  prop- 
erly. Don't  go  to  your  employer's  private  of- 
fice and  say:  There's  a  man  wants  to  see 
you." 

The  girl  who  does  not  know  enough  to  find 


STENOGRAPHY 


,11 


out  wlio  tlie  man  is  and  what  right  or  object  he 
has  to  interrupt  her  employer  will  never  be 
paid  several  thousand  dollars  a  year  to  stand 
between  the  public  and  that  employer  if  some 
day  he  becomes  great  enough  to  need  a  confi- 
dential secretary  to  shield  him. 

If  you  come  in  direct  contact  with  patrons  of 
the  firm,  learn  their  names  and  never  forget 
them.  A  regular  patron  considers  a  girl  clever 
who  always  remembers  his  name  and  receives 
him  courteously. 

Dress  to  suit  your  position.  If  you  work  in 
a  dirty  office,  such  as  a  printing  concern,  whole- 
sale grocery  or  a  hardware  shop,  wear  skirts 
that  clear  the  ground  by  at  least  three  inches; 
but  if  you  are  employed  in  the  private  office 
which  has  been  well  furnished  and  nicely  car- 
peted, wear  longer  skirts,  not  trains,  but  cut  to 
escape  the  ground.   Your  employer  will  want 
you,  like  furniture  and  pictures,  to  dress  in  har- 
mony with  the  furnishings  of  his  office.  Avoid 
garish  colors.  Be  dignified  in  your  dress  as  well 
as  your  manner.   Do  not  consider  that  money 
spent  on  office  clothes  is  wasted.   It  will  bring 
you  better  returns  than  money  spent  on  party 
frocks  or  feather-trimmed  hats. 

Be  immaculately  neat  about  your  person, 
especially  your  hair  and  your  hands.  Radiate 
health  and  faith  in  yourself.  Do  not  talk  of 
your  domestic  troubles  nor  your  ailments.  The 


12  STENOGEAPHY 


girl  who  is  always  ill,  however  slightly,  who 
details  her  aches  and  her  quarrels  with  her 
dressmaker,  arid  neighborhood  gossip  to  her 
fellow-clerks,  or  even  to  her  chief,  if  he  allows 
her  to  talk  on  such  subjects,  is  not  in  line  for 
promotion.  Men  promote  girls-  who  have  the 
health  to  do  more  work^  not  those  who  complain 
of  being  tired  from  what  they  are  doing  already. 

Business  colleges  and  commercial  schoois, 
however  thorough,  generally  neglect  one  branch 
in  preparing  girls  for  office  work.  Perhaps  the 
word  ' '  branch ' '  is  misleading.  Properly  speak- 
ing, they  fail  to  train  or  develop  the  bump  of 
discretion.  They  preach  accuracy,  but  they  for- 
get to  inculcate  the  golden  gift  of  silence.  Many 
a  graduate,  wise  in  stenographic  pot-hooks  and 
rapid  on  the  typewriter,  has  lost  her  first  posi- 
tion, and  more,  because  she  did  not  realize  that 
there  is  a  time  to  talk  and  a  time  to  keep  silent. 

There  are  times  when  to  tell  what  you  know 
is  almost  criminal.  Your  employer  must  trust 
you  more  or  less  if  you  are  his  stenographer  or 
secretary.  Even  small  matters,  appealing  to 
you  as  unimportant,  may  be  vital  to  him.  You 
are  not  the  judge.   In  silence  lies  safety. 

A  lawyer,  who  was  just  making  a  name  for 
himself,  was  blessed,  or  cursed,  with  a  jealous 
wife.  His  private  stenographer  knew  this  and 
used  rare  discretion  in  replying  to  telephone 
calls,  to  which  his  wife  was  particularly  given. 


STENOGRAPHY  13 


THe  day  came  when  this  girl  was  taken  ill. 
Her  substitute,  selected  from  the  main  ofi&ce, 
was  a*  woman  of  thirty,  the  talkative  kind.  The 
third  day  after  her  promotion,  the  wife  called 
the  lawyer  up  by  telephone  during  the  noon 
hour.  The  substitute  stenographer  answered-as 
follows : 

^'No,  Mr.  J.  is  not  in.  He*  has  gone  out  to 
lunch.  No,  I  don't  know  where.  Oh,  is  this 
Mrs.  J.?  Well,  of  course,  I  can  teil  you.  He 
has  gone  out  with  Mrs.  Bull,  the  woman  who 
owns  those  big  mines  in  Nevada,  whose  case 
your  husband  has  just  taken. ' ' 

The  old  stenographer  would  have  answered 
briefly  that  Mr.  J.  had  gone  out  to  lunch  and 
would  not  be  back  until  two.  The  absolutely  un- 
asked and  unnecessary  information  furnished 
by  the  new  girl  caused  a  domestic  cyclone.  The 
husband's 'privilege  of  showing  courtesy  to  an 
important  client  was  queetioned,  and  when  he 
resented  interference  on  his  wife's  part,  she 
actually  went  to  the  client's  hotel  and  made  a 
scene.  The  lawyer  lost  his  client,  the  Western 
woman  lost  the  services  of  a  capable  attorney, 
and  the  wife  lost  her  husband's  respect — all 
because  a  silly,  talkative  woman  of  thirty  did 
not  appreciate  the  fact  that  silence  is  a  golden 
gift. 

Another  girl  lost  an  excellent  position 
through  just  such  futile  chatter.  Her  employer 


14  STENOGRAPHY 

Had  gone  out,  and  a  most  personable  young  man 
called.  She  was  quite  alone,  her  notes  had  all 
been  transcribed,  and  she  had  forgotten  to  bring 
down  a  new  novel. 

Informed  that  her  employer  was  not  in,  the 
young  man  turned  to  leave,  but,  seizing  the  first 
conversational  straw  that  blew  her  way,  she  ex- 
claimed: ^'Oh,  you  are  not  Mr.  Beveridge, 
thenr^ 

The  young  man  shook  his  head,  but  paused 
with  his  hand  on  the  door-knob. 

just  thought  you  might  be,  because  llr. 
Blank  has  been  expecting  Mr.  Beveridge  for 
several  days,  and  I  know  he  would  want  him 
to  wait.'^ 

The  young  man  leaned  against  the  door  and 
remarked  that  she  had  a  very  pleasant  office. 
His  desire  to  hurry  seemed  to  have  fallen  from 
him.  When  he  went  away  he  had  a  pretty  good 
idea  why  his  chief  competitor,  Beveridge,  was 
mixing  in  with  Blank.  And  the  girl  lost  her 
position,  because  in  her  frantic  effort  to  make 
conversation  she  had  dropped  just  enough  clues 
to  her  employer's  affairs  to  make  him  trouble. 

As  a  rule,  the  woman  who  advances  most 
rapidly  in  her  trade  or  business  is  the  one  who 
talks  the  least  while  on  duty.  This  does  not 
mean  being  stupid  when  addressed,  but  simply 
in  knowing  just  when  to  stop  talking,  how  to 
talk  intelligently  on  topics  connected  with  the 


STENOGRAPHY 


15 


business,  and  how  to  ayoid  personalities  which 
are  dangerous  and  banal. 

Trust  no  confidant  with  the  affairs  of  your 
employer. 

*^Let  out  that  girl  with  the  green  dress  and 
the  red  hair — right  over  there^ — at  the  second 
desk/'  said  the  senio-r  partner  of  a  large  con- 
cern one  day  as  he  came  in*  from  lunch.  The 
man  addressed  followed  his  employer  into  the 
latter 's  private  office  and  closed  the  door  behind 
him.  beg  your  pardon,  Mr.  M.  for  ques- 
tioning your  orders,  but  Miss  Brown  is  one  of 
our  most  rapid  workers  

**And  a  dangerous  girl  to  have  in  our  office. 
My  boy  came  in  here  to-day  and  bothered  me 
just  when  I  was  working  at  some  important 
papers.  He  wanted  some  clothes  or  something 
or  the  sort  for  a  college  jamboree,  and  I  told 
him,  with  strong  trimmings,  to  get  out.  I  want 
domestic  and  family  questions  settled  where 
they  belong,  in  our  home,  and  not  at  my  office 
during  business  hours.  That  was  all  there  was 
to  our  row. 

^  ^  That  girl  had  lunch  with  a  man  at  my  res- 
taurant to-day,  and  I  was  just  a  few  feet  from 
her,  screened  by  some  palms.  I  heard  her  tell 
that  man  about  a  sensational  quarrel  between 
me  and  my  boy  over  a  chorus  girl.  The  boy  is 
singing  in  the  chorus  of  his  class  show.  That 
was  all  she  caught  of  our  high  words  'chorus' — 


16 


STENOGRAPHY 


and  she  goes  out  of  here  to  talk  scandal.  If  she 
will  enlarge  on  what  she  catches  of  my  private 
affairs,  she  will  do  the  same  with  our  business 
affairs,  on  which  she  is  well  posted.  Let  her 
out — she  is  dangerous. 

That  is  the  general  verdict  on  the  girl  who 
carries  tales — she  is  dangerous. 

I  hear  girls  say :  '  ^  But  the  men  drew  us  out. '  * 
So  they  do,  and  laugh  at  you  for  being  so  easily 
misled.  Many  a  girl  has  lost  a  good  position 
because  she  has  allowed  some  man  to  draw  her 
out  and  to  use  the  information  thus  gained  for 
his  own  advancement. 


CHAPTEE  II 


SALESMANSHIP 

In  every  city  of  any  size  the  public  schools 
are  sending  forth,  at  the  end  of  each  school 
year,  hundreds  of  girls  who  must  earn  their 
living,  or  part  of  it,  immediately,  and  yet  who 
have  absolutely  no  training  for  a  business  or 
professional  career.  Some  of  these  girls  gradu- 
ate from  the  high  schools,  others  go  no  further 
than  the  highest  elementary  or  grammar  grade. 
And  none  of  them  has  either  the  time  or  money 
to  take  a  special  course  or  to  serve  a  long- 
drawn,  unpaid  apprenticeship. 

These  girls  have  good  health,  a  reasonable 
amount  of  common  sense,  ordinary  intelligence, 
a  knowledge  of  elementary  English  branches, 
willingness,  and  the  desire  to  learn. 

Where  will  this  human  raw  material  find  a 
market? 

In  retail  establishments,  selling  goods. 

I  hear  a  murmur  of  disapproval  rising,  from 
girls  who  already  stand  behind  the  counter,  but 
despite  their  murmurings  I  propose  to'  continue 

17 


18 


SALESMANSHIP 


this  practical  talk  on  salesmanship  for  ambi- 
tious, inexperienced  girls. 

When  I  told  an  acquaintance  that  I  intended 
to  advise  the  untrained,  unequipped  girl  in  need 
of  a  position  to  seek  one  behind  the  counter,  she 
gave  me  a  glance  which  held  both  pity  for  my 
ignorance  and  scorn  for  apparent  indifference 
to  the  fate  of  the  girls  who  will  read  this  article. 

^^Well,  if  you  knew  the  work  as  I  do  you 
would  never  advise  any  girl  to  go  into  a  store. 
I  Ve  been  in  this  store  seven  years.  I'm  getting 
ten  dollars  a  week,  and  I'll  never  get  any  more. 
It's  just  drudgery,  cross  customers,  spiteful 
floor-walkers,  and  no  appreciation  or  thanks 
from  any  one." 

Now  it  just  happens  that  I  have  stood  behind 
the  counter  and  know  just  what  I  am  advising 
girls  to  do.  Ninety  saleswomen  out  of  every 
hundred  will  echo  the  sentiments  expressed  by 
the  girl  quoted  above.  The  other  ten  have 
either  secured  promotion  or  see  it  looming  up 
joyously  in  the  near  future. 

Any  sort  of  wage-earning  may  degenerate 
into  drudgery.  We  make  our  lives,  in  shop  or 
store  or  office,  drudgery  or  pleasure  by  the  way 
we  tackle  the  work.  The  secret  of  finding  either 
drudgery  or  pleasure  in  work  lies  in  ourselves. 

Given  average  intelligence,  good  health  and  a 
brave  spirit,  and  yoai  can  transform  the  drudg- 
ery of  life  behind  the  counter  into  success.  But 


SALESMANSHIP 


19 


of  course  if,  like  the  girl  already  quoted,  you 
intend  to  lean  back  against  the  shelving  and 
say:  ^^Well,  I  have  gone  as  far  as  I  can  go, 
so  what's  the  use  of  trying?''  you  will  not 
progress. 

It  is  for  the  girl  who  must  work  that  I  am 
writing  this  article,  not  for  the  girl  who  wants 
to  earn  a  little  pin  money ;  for  the  girl  who  must 
secure  some  sort  of  a  salary  from  the  very 
start  of  her  business  life,  not  the  girl  whose 
parents  can  afford  to  send  her  through  an  art 
school,  a  business  college  or  a  course  in  domes- 
tic science.  This  talk  is  with  the  girl  who  is 
face  to  face  with  the  problem  of  clothing  and 
food  and  a  roof  over  her  head. 

We  will  start  by  assuming  that  you  have  a 
neat  appearance,  good  manners,  and  a  clear 
handwriting  and  are  quick  at  figures.  These 
are  valuable  assets. 

If  you  live  in  or  near  a  good-sized  city,  first 
make  the  round  of  the  stores  there.  Study  the 
appearance  of  the  girls  already  employed,  and 
the  conditions  under  which  they  work.  You 
will  soon  learn  whether  seats  are  provided  be- 
hind counters,  whether  the  counters  and  shelv- 
ing are  so  arranged  that  the  girls  between  them 
have  room  to  work  comfortably,  whether  the 
light  and  air  are  aiS  good  as  one  can  expect  to 
find  in  the  modern  store.  In  your  inexperience 
these  may  seem  like  trifles,  but  once  you  get  on 


SALESMANSHIP 


the  other  side  of  the  counter  you  will  find  that 
these  very  trifles  have  much  to  do  with  making 
your  daily  life  livable.  Many  of  the  better 
stores  have  yielded  to  public  opinion,  or  rather 
the  pressure  of  their  customers,  and  have  in- 
stalled stools  or  upturned  boxes  for  the  use  of 
the  saleswomen.  Others  still  maintain  the  bar- 
barous custom  of  expecting  clerks  to  remain 
standing  from  morning  until  night. 

It  is  very  easy  to  learn  whether  the  girls  are 
well  or  ill-treated  in  a  store.  When  shopping, 
start  a  chat  with  one  of  the  clerks,  and  you 
will  soon  learn  the  character  of  the  store's  man- 
agement. 

This  preliminary  line  of  inquiry  is  important. 
No  girl  should  rush  blindly  into  a  position. 
Managers  are  interested  in  the  applicant  who 
seems  to  know  something  about  the  store. 

If  you  are  a  high  school  graduate,  and  have 
a  mature  appearance,  you  can  apply  at  once  for 
the  position  of  salesgirl.  If  you  are  not  over 
sixteen,  fresh  from  the  grammar  school  or  even 
a  lower  grade,  you  must  start  as  a  cash-ffirl,  a 
wrapper,  or  a  bundle  inspector.  In  all  the  mod- 
ern, well-managed  stores  young  girls  are  start- 
ed in  this  way,  and  are  trained  for  the  work, 
and  in  a  large  auditorium  theoretical  instruc- 
tions and  lectures  are  given.  The  beginner 
generally  receives  three  dolla^rs  a  week,  and  is 
promoted  as  fast  as  she  displays  ability. 


SALESMANSHIP 


Trade  is  extremely  dull  in  retail  stores  just 
after  schools  close  in  June,  but  it  will  pay  you 
to  make  the  rounds  and  meet  the  managers  or 
superintendents  of  employees.  These  men  have 
regular  hours,  which  you  will  find  posted  over 
the  employment-office  door.  Observe  these 
hours.  If  the  card  states  that  women  appli- 
cants are  received  between  8 :30  and  11,  and  you 
happen  to  come  in  during  the  afternoon,  when 
men  applicants  are  received,  go  away  and  re- 
turn the  next  morning. 

Unless  an  unusual  opening  has  occurred,  this 
superintendent  will  tell  you  that  he  is  hiring 
no  one  until  the  busy  season  opens,  about  three 
or  four  weeks  before  Easter;  September  1st  in 
the  fall.  Then  ask  him  to  take  your  name  and 
address  or  give  you  an  application  blank.  Tell 
him  that  in  the  meantime  you  hope  to  gain 
some  experience  in  another  and  perhaps  smaller 
store,  but  you  want  an  opening  with  his  firm 
when  the  busy  season  begins. 

Fill  out  the  application  blank  with  infinite 
care.  By  your  answers  will  he  judge  your  ac- 
curacy, which  is  important  in  the  saleswoman 
who  must  make  out  sales-slips.  By  its  general 
appearance  will  he  judge  of  your  neatness.  The 
average  superintendent  is  on  the  watch  for  neat, 
business-like,  intelligent-looking  girls,  and  if 
you  make  a  good  impression  on  him  and  furnish 
satisfactory  references,  your  name  will  not  be 


22  SALESMANSHIP 


forgotten.  He  will  put  a  mysterious  little  sign 
somewhere  on  that  application,  meaning  that 
you  are  to  be  sent  for  when  clerks  are  needed. 

When  looking  for  work  of  this  sort,  dress 
suitably.  Do  not  wear  your  biggest  hat,  your 
fanciest  waist,  your  longest  gloves,  your  shoes^ 
with  the  highest  heels.  Look  at  successful  busi- 
ness women,  and  you  will  find  them  simply  but 
well  dressed  in  tailored  effects,  with  hats  of 
medium  size.  Be  sure  your  petticoat  does  not 
hang  below  your  dress  skirt,  that  the  heels*  of 
your  boots  are  straight,  and  the  finger-tips  of 
your  gloves  are  all  mended.  The  up-to-date 
superintendent  watches  his  applicants  from  the 
tail  of  a  sharp  eye,  and  the  girl  who  is  slovenly 
in  her  appearance,  he  argues,  will  be  slovenly  in 
her  care  of  his  stock. 

Now,  we  will  take  it  for  granted  that  yau 
have  filled  out  your  application  blank  correctly 
and  have  been  told  by  the  superintendent  just 
when  to  come  back  to  secure  an  opening  for  the 
busy  season. 

You  have  slipped  in  the  entering-wedge.  Go 
out  and  get  experience  of  some  sort,  at  some 
price.  In  any  large  city  such  openings  are  ad- 
vertised daily  in  bakeries,  candy-stores,  five- 
and-ten-cent  stores,  shops  where  notions  and 
dressmakers '  supplies  are  sold.  Such  firms  sel- 
dom pay  over  five  dollars  a  week,  some  pay  only 
three,  but  take  the  work  and  serve  here  the  ap- 


SALESMANSHIP 


prenticeship  which  will  make  you  less  awtward 
and  green"  when  the  opening  at  the  big  store 
does  come. 

Your  first  difficulty,  after  securing  the  posi- 
tion, will  be  a  purely  physical  one.  You  will 
suffer  tortures  with  your  feet,  and  perhaps  with 
your  back,  as  the  result  of  standing. 

Have  shoes  that  fit  you  perfectly,  with  me- 
dium heels,  and  it  will  help  some  if  you  have 
an  extra  pair  under  the  coianter  and  change 
them  during  the  course  of  the  day.  At  night 
bathe  the  feet  in  tepid  water.  Some  saleswomen 
find  alum  water  most  helpful.  Others  use  bak- 
ing soda  or  even  ordinary  table  salt.  Change 
your  stockings  frequently,  and  do- not  under  any 
circumstances  neglect  your  feet.  As  a  sales- 
woman you  depend  upon  them,  literally  and  fig- 
uratively, for  your  bread  and  butter. 

Now,  supposing  that  you  have  served  your 
apprenticeship  in  the  small  store,  and  the  time 
for  better  business  in  the  more  desirable  and 
bigger  stores  has  arrived.  Write  to  the  super- 
intendent with  whom  you  left  your  application 
a  brief,  business-like  note,  recalling  the  date  of 
your  application  and  the  fact  that  he  bade  you 
call  later.  He  will  probably  answer  this  note 
if  you  enclose  a  self-addressed  and  stamped 
envelope.  Or,  if  you  can  do  so,  take  an  hour 
off  and  go  to  see  him  again.   If  you  made  a 


24 


SALESMANSHIP 


good  impression,  he  will  recall  yoa,  and  nine 
chances  out  of  ten  he  will  give  yon  work. 

This  brings  ns  to  the  salary  question.  The 
superintendent  will  inquire  whether  you  live  at 
home  with  your  parents.  If  you  do,  and  there 
is  a  position  behind  the  counter  for  you,  six 
dollars  a  week  will  be  the  salary  mo<st  proba- 
bly offered.  That  may  seem  absurdly  small, 
because  you  have  planned  on  buying  some 
pretty  clothes  and  helping  mother  at  home,  in 
addition  to  paying  carfare  and  buying  lunches. 
But  the  superintendent  is  thinking  not  of  what 
you  feel  you  should  have  to  spend,  but  what 
you  will  earn  for  the  firm.  You  will  not  be 
worth  more  than  six  dollars  a  week  at  the  be- 
ginning. Perhaps  you  will  not  be  worth  even 
that.  Perhaps  it  will  cost  the  firm  money  to 
train  you  for  the  position  you  imagine  that  you 
can  fill  without  difficulty. 

I  will  tell  yo*u  just  how  to  estimate  your  value 
to  the  firm.  Your  salary  should  never  amqjant 
to  more  than  five  per  cent,  of  your  sales.  That 
is,  if  your  salary  is  six  dollars  a  week,  you 
should  sell  at  least  one  hundred  and  twenty  dol- 
lars worth  of  goods  every  week.  You  will  have 
a  record  of  your  sales.  Count  this  every  night, 
and  find  the  tatal  at  the  end  of  the  week.  You 
need  not  be  surprised  if  at  first  the  firm  pays 
you  really  more  than  you  earn.  If  you  are  paid 
six  dollars  a  week  and  your  sales  are  only 


SALESMANSHIP. 


25 


ninety  dollars,  then  the  firm  will  lose  money  on 
yonr  services.  When  your  salary  is  only  three 
per  cent,  of  your  sales — that  is,  when  yon  are 
paid  six  dollars  a  week  and  yonr  sales  amount 
to  two  hundred  dollars  on  the  week — you  may 
feel  that  you  are  a  fair  saleswoman!.  "When 
you  can  reduce  that  percentage  to  two  per  ceni., 
by  dint  of  studying  the  needs  of  your  custom- 
ers and  your  stock,  you  can  approach  the  super- 
intendent with  an  easy  conscience  and  ask  for 
a  raise.  You  will  get  it. 

The  first  engagement  in  a  large  store  carries 
the  understanding  that  you  will  be  laid  off  after 
the  holidays  or  Easter  rush  or  during  hot 
weather. 

It  is  distinctly  up  to  you  to  make  so  good  a 
record  as  a  saleswoman  that  when  the  dull 
season  arrives  again  you  will  be  retained. 

In  order  to  accomplish  this,  study  three 
things — ^your  stock,  your  trade  and  your  buyer 
or  the  head  of  the  department. 

Early  in  the  morning,  when  trade  is  light,  go 
through  your  stock,  learn  what  is  in  every  box 
and  drawer,  and  if  it  consists  of  goods  with 
which  you  are  not  familiar,-  such  as  laces  or 
ribbons,  learn  the  names  of  the  various  varieties. 
Not  long  ago  a  shopper  asked  a  very  pretty  but 
pert  miss  at  a  department  store  to  show  her 
Oriental  lace  two  inches  wide.   The  girl  asked : 

' '  Oriental  lace  ?  What 's  it  like  ? ' ' 


26  SALESMANSHIP 


It  was  her  business  to  know  the  name  of 
every  sort  of  lace  on  her  shelves.  She  belongs 
in  the  class  of  girls  who  declare  there  is  noth- 
ing in  clerking. 

The  superintendent  of  a  great  department 
store  told  me  that  the  reason  he  never  received 
applicants  nntil  9:30  in  the  morning  was  be- 
cause he  wanted  to  spend  the  time  between  8 :15 
and  9:30  o'clock  roaming  through  the  store  to 
find  out  which  girls  were  arranging  and  becom- 
ing familiar  with  their  stock,  and  which  were 
telling  about  the  play  or  the  party  they  had  at- 
tended the  night  before.  Yet  there  are  girls 
who  say  that  you  get  no  credit  for  being  pains- 
taking in  a  store ! 

Study  your  trade.  Take  an  Interest  in  your 
customers.  Do  not  act  as  if  the  woman  who 
wants  to  buy  a  new  tie  were  a  nuisance,  and  had 
no  right  to  interrupt  your  conversation  with 
your  fellow-clerks. 

A  friend  recently  approached  the  notion 
counter  of  a  very  nice  store,  and  asked  for 
white  elastic.  The  girl  addressed  was  busy  ad- 
justing her  puffs  by  the  aid  of  a  pocket-mirror. 

^^Kate,''  she  murmured  with  her  mouth  filled 
with  hair-pins,  '^come  see  to  this  woman,  will 
your' 

^'This  woman"  did  not  wait  to  be  ^^seen  to.'' 
And  there  is  another  girl  who  says  clerking  is 
a  drudgery! 


SALESMANSHIP  27 


Study  the  buyer  for  your  department.  He 
has  his  little  peculiarities  and  his  fads.  It  is 
only  tactful  to  respect  the  first  and  cater  to  the 
last.  If  he  wants  a  special  brand  pushed,  push 
it.  It  is  the  buyer  who  will  decide,  when  dull 
days  come,  just  which  girls  should  be  retained. 
He  is  the  man  who  stands  between  you  and  the 
superintendent  or  manager.  He  can  suggest 
your  name  for  promotion,  and  when  you  feel 
that  you  deserve  a  raise  of  salary,  he  is  the  man 
who  can  get  it  for  you. 

There  are  women  to-day  in  the  retail  or  de- 
partment stores  earning  twenty-five  dollars  a 
week  as  saleswomen.  Most  of  them  started  at 
five,  six  or  seven  a  week — and  studied  their 
stocks,  their  trade  and  their  buyer. 

There  are  women  buying  for  millinery  de- 
partments at  seventy-five  dollars  a  week  who 
never  learned  to  trim  a  hat,  but  they  did  learn 
what  their  customers  wanted  and  what  they  re- 
fused to  buy. 

There  are  women  buying  laces  and  under- 
wear and  buttons  and  trimmings  for  New  York 
stores  at  five  thousand  dollars  a-  year.  They 
started  as  clerks.  And  they  did  not  belong  to 
the  class  who  said  that  clerking  is  nothing  but 
drudgery.  They  looked  at  their  customers  and 
not  at  their  mirrors.  They  were  respectful  to 
the  buyer  or  man  in  authority. 

You  expect  to  be  trained  for  nursing,  for 


28 


SALESMANSHIP. 


teaching,  for  painting.  Well,  why  not  for  buy- 
ing goods  in  a  modern  store?  Eemember  that 
when  you  sell  goods  at  five,  six  or  seven  dollars 
a  week  you  are  being  trained  as  a  buyer,  and 
at  the  firm's  expense.  That  training  ought  to 
be  one  reason  for  gratitude.  If  you  never  be- 
come a  buyer,  if  yon?  remain  in  the  class  of  store 
drudges,  it  is  n.a  one's  fault  but  your  own.  The 
firm  is  ready  to  do  its  part,  if  you  da  yours. 

Many  of  these  suggestions  apply  also  to  girls 
from  small  cities  or  even  country  villages  who 
wish  to  secure  positions  in  city  stores.  There 
is  no  prejudice  against  country  girls  in  the  big 
city  stores.  Several  superintendents  have  told 
me  that,  all  things  being  equal,  they  prefer  the 
out-of-town  girl  to  the  city  girl,  because  she 
proves  more  earnest  in  her  endeavors,  largely 
because  she  has  more  at  stake. 

The  out-of-town  girl  must  expect  a  rigid 
cross-examination  at  the  hands  of  her  prospect- 
ive employer.  He  will  want  to  know  with  whom 
she  intends  to  board,  and  what  she  will  pay. 
This,  because  he  knows  just  what  salary  he  can 
offer  and  how  she  must  make  that  stretch  to 
cover  nourishing  food,  presentable  clothing  and 
incidental  expenses.  If  he  is  more  than  ordi- 
narily impressed  by  her  appearance,  he  may 
add  a  dollar  a  week  to  the  salary  he  would  offer 
the  city  girl  who  lives  with  her  parents. 


SALESMANSHIP 


If  the  out-of-town  applicant  will  be  entirely 
frank  with  the  superintendent  in  the  matter  of 
her  finances,  he  will  advise  her  wisely  about 
ways  of  living.  The  question  af  living  in  a 
big  city  on  a  small  salary  will  be  taken  up  in 
another  chapter.  In  this  chapter  I  have  tried 
only  to  advise  girls  how  to  go  about  the  diffi- 
cult task  of  securing  a  hearing.  Once  installed 
in  a  store,  a  girl  who  is  really  in  earnest  about 
her  work  will  find  chances  for  advancement  in 
plenty.  Some  girls  are  too  indifferent,  too  lazy, 
too  shiftless,  to  seize  an  opportunity  thrust 
upon  them.  They  make  up  the  great  army  of 
clerks  that  remain  stationary  behind  the  coun- 
ters. The  girl  who  moves  on  and  up  is  the  girl 
who  sees  or  makes  opportunities  every  day  and 
every  hour. 

Salesmanship,  once  cultivated  and  trained 
into  a  business  asset,  need  not  confine  a  worker 
to  the  city  department  store.  The  woman  who 
can  sell  goods  will  find  many  outlets  for  her 
energy.  Eeal-estate,  especially  in  suburban 
properties,  offers  splendid  inducements  to  the 
woman  with  a  gift  for  selling.  Life  insurance 
is  a  fine  field  of  endeavor.  Standard  piano  firms 
offer  good  commissions  to  women  agents.  The 
woman  who  can  demonstrate  foods  and  take 
orders  in  department  stores  and  grocery  stores, 
can  work  into  a;  position  as  traveling  sales- 


30 


SALESMANSHIP 


woman  for  a  manufacturing  concern.  The 
thing  is  to  get  the  training  and  develop  your 
ability  to  sell  on  the  right  lines.  The  better 
and  bigger  openings  will  come. 


CHAPTER  III 


TRAIISrED  AND  SEMI-TRAINED  NURSING 

The  profession  of  nursing  is  just  now  in  the 
throes  of  what  might  be  termed  a  social  up- 
heaval. For  ten  years,  when  the  training- 
school  for  nurses  first  offered  an  entrance 
to  a  profitable  career  for  women,  it  passed 
through  the  romantic  period.  Would-be  nurses 
saw  themselves  as  charming  figures  in  uniform, 
veritable  angels  of  mercy,  particularly  to  good- 
looking  young  men  and  to  elderly  persons  in 
search  of  heiresses.  The  halo  of  the  minister- 
ing angel — always  with  a  becoming,  fluff  of<.hair 
under  it — held  a  conspicuous  position  in  their 
dreams  of  a  hospital  career. 

To-day  nursing,  having  passed  unharmed 
through  this  romantic  era,  is  reaching  a  purely 
scientific  basis.  The  high  standard,  physical, 
mental  and  moral,  demanded  of  probationers 
and  student  nurses,  and  the  long  period  of  re- 
lentless training,  have  landed  the  nurse  where 
she  belongs,  close  to  the  physician's  elbow.  In 
this  day  of  drugless  cures,  the  intelligence,  judg- 

31 


32  TEAINED  NUESING 


ment  and  vigilance  of  tlie  trained  nnrsef  mean 
as  much  in  the  s-ick-room  as  the  prescriptions  of 
the  physician;  therefore  the  trained  nurse  has 
dropped  the  halo  for  the  mortar-board.  Gradu- 
ally she  is  finding  her  level  in  the  professional 
world. 

As  a  result,  while  fewer  girls  pass  the  exami- 
nations for  entering  training-schools,  those  who 
do  pass  find  themselves  in  a  goodly  company  of 
real  students,  not  emotional  enthusiasts. 

First:  ^^What  girls  are  suited  to  do  the 
work,  and  therefore  desired  by  superintendents 
of  training-schools  r' 

The  young  women  who  are  physically  and 
nervously  strong,  and  who  are  immaculately 
neat  about  their  persons. 

The  girl  who  has  weak  sight,  who  is  slightly 
deaf,  who  suffers  from  chronic  throat  trouble 
or  catarrh  or  sick  headaches  or  backaches 
should  never  consider  this  profession.  Even  if 
she  manages  to  squeeze  through  her  physical 
examination  she  will  never  pass  muster  during 
her  term  of  probation.  Physical  defects  must 
be  cured,  not  alleviated,  before  an  applicant 
presents  herself  at  any  training-school.  Cana- 
dian and  Californian  girls  pass  excellent 
physical  examinations.  , 

Mentally,  you  should  be  equipped  with  a  high- 
school  education,  or  its  equivalent.  A  broader 
education  is  an  advantage  but  not  an  essential. 


TRAINED  NURSING  33 


The  girl  who  cannot  indite  a  legible,  well- 
spelled,  clearly-phrased  letter  has  little  or  no 
chance  of  receiving  an  application  blank.  A 
training-school  for  nnrses  is  not  the  place  in 
which  to  study  the  rudiments  af  English  and 
arithmetic. 

The  girl  who  is  slovenly  about  her  person  or 
her  clothes  need  not  waste  money  on  carfare  to 
the  city  where  the  hospital-school  is  located. 
Untidiness  clips  the  wings  of  a  probationer  as 
quickly  as  a  physical  defect.  The  strong, 
straight-limbed,  full-chested  girl  who  carries 
herself  well,  and  whose  skin  is  clear  and  well 
kept,  whose  clothes  are  immaculate,  whose  every 
movement  is  alert,  is  the  girl  for  whom-  the 
superintendent  is  looking.  The  girl  who  is 
given  to  violent  intimacies,  followed  by  violent 
quarrels,  is  not  fitted  for  this  work.  The  trained 
nurse  must  be  self-contained  to  the  point  of  be- 
ing secretive.  She  must  study  the  art  of  keep- 
ing to  herself  and  her  work.  Neither  is  the 
training-school  for  nurses  the  place  for  the 
high-strung,  emotional  girl,  who  overestimates 
her  importance.  The  path  which  leads  to  a 
diploma  holds  for  a  girl  absolute  self-efface- 
ment. She  is  only  a  very  small  part  of  the  great 
hospital  system  with  which  she  casts  her  lot. 
Her  personality  is  merged  into  one  word — 
"duty.'' 

Having  decided  that  you  are  fitted  for  the 


34  TRAINED  NUESING 


work,  with  its  hard  training  and  its  liberal  re- 
wards at  the  end  of  the  straight  and  very  nar- 
row path,  decide  where  you  wish  to  study.  So 
far  as  actual  training  is  concerned  you  will  re- 
receive  as  up-to-date  instruction  in  any  large  city 
near  your  home  as  in  such  great  centers  as  New 
York  or  Chicago.  Perhaps  there  is  even  more 
chance  for  individual  work  and  supervision,  but 
on  the  other  hand  the  hospitals  of  New  York 
and  Chicago  present  a  greater  variety  of  ex- 
perience, a  broader  field  of  work,  because  the 
wards  and  the  clinics  are  much  larger.  Also, 
work  in  a  New  York  or  Chicago  hospital  is  much 
harder,  the  discipline  is  more  strict,  and  your 
ego  is  even  more  cruelly  suppressed  than  in  the 
less  strenuous  life  of  a  smaller  institution. 

If  you  should  decide  to  enter  a  training- 
school  in  your  own  city  or  .the  city  nearest  to 
your  home,  go  first  to  your  family  physician 
and  subject  yourself  to  a  thorough  physical  ex- 
amination. Armed  with  a  certificate  of  good 
health  over  his  signature  and  a  letter  of  recom- 
mendation from  your  pastor,  or  from  the  prin- 
cipal of  the  school  from  which  you  graduated, 
present  yourself  to  the  superintendent  of  the 
training-school  for  nurses.  If  it  is  a  large  in- 
stitution you  had  best  write  for  an  appoint- 
ment, as  many  superintendents  have  certain 
hours  for  interviewing  applicants.  Your  fate 
is  then  in  her  hands.   She  is  an  absolute  auto- 


TRAINED  NURSING  35 


crat,  and  you  cannot  appeal  from  her  decision 
to  any  physician  connected  with  the  hospital. 
Your  first  lesson  in  training-school  discipline 
will  be  the  power  of  the  superintendent. 

If  you  wish  to  go  to  a  city  like  New  York  or 
Chicago  make  your  application  by  mail.  Ad- 
dress it  to  the  superintendent  of  the  training- 
school,  and  state  in  it  clearly  and  unequivocally 
your  age,  height,  weight,  health,  strength  and 
any  physical  defects  you  may  have.  Do  not 
try  to  gloss  over  any  deficiency  in  training  or 
condition.  Be  sure  the  superintendent  will  find 
you  out.  Set  forth  your  educational  advan- 
tages, your  occupation  from  the  time  you  left 
school  until  the  hour  of  writing,  the  church  of 
which  you  are  a  member,  your  reasons  and  mo- 
tives for  becoming  a  trained  nurse,  also  wheth- 
er you  are  married,  single,  widowed  or  divorced. 
Be  equally  frank  as  to  your  responsibilities, 
whether  you  have  others  dependent  upon  you 
for  financial  support.  Forward  with  these 
statements,  which  you  should  make  as  brief  as 
possible,  your  letter  or  letters  of  recommenda- 
tion, and  a  certificate  of  health. 

If  this  informal  application  makes  a  good 
impression  on  the  superintendent,  she  will  send 
you  a  regular  application  blank,  which  you  will 
fill  out  with  infinite  care — and  please,  dear  girls, 
if  you  want  to  make  a  good  impression  with 
this,  do  not  send  it  forth  decorated  with  tiny 


36  TRAINED  NURSING 


blots,  or,  worse  still,  greasy  thumb-marks.  It 
will  announce  to  the  trained  eye  of  that  super- 
intendent that  you  are  not  neat.  And  untidi- 
ness, as  I  said  before,  is  a  heinous  offense. 

Now,  we  will  take  up  your  career  at  your  mo- 
ment of  acceptance  as  a  probationer.  Your- 
name  is  placed  on  the  waiting-list,  and  there  it 
stays  until  a  vacancy  occurs,  when  you  will  be 
summoned  and  must  report  at  once.  In  the 
meantime  get  everything  in  readiness.  When 
you  are  notified  that  you  have  been  accepted  as 
a  probationer  you  will  receive  a  list  of  the  cloth- 
ing to  bring  with  you.  This  varies  in  different 
hospitals,  therefore  I  cannot  give  explicit  direc- 
tions. All  this  clothing  you  must  provide  and 
pay  for.  The  training-school  provides  nothing 
until  you  have  passed  the  period  of  probation 
and  have  entered  upon  your  long  term  of  serv- 
ice to  the  institution,  when  you  will  be  paid  a 
small  salary  with  which  to  purchase  uniforms, 
or  the  uniform  will  be  furnished.  This  much  I 
will  say :  Show  good  judgment  in  the  selection 
of  your  clothing.  Have  plenty  of  simple  things 
rather  than  a  few  that  are  ornately  trimmed.  If 
you  expected  to  wear  a  uniform  of  chambray  or 
gingham  or  zephyr  cloth  in  the  familiar  gray- 
blue  and  white  stripe,  have  these  simple  dresses 
fitted  carefully  to  give  you  the  appearance  of 
trimness,  and  have  the  waist  and  skirt  joined 
by  a  narrow  band  to  avoid  the  separation  of 


TEAINED  NUESING 


37 


skirt  and  waist  or  the  use  of  unsightly  safety-  1 

pins.  Have  an  ample  supply  of  perfectly  plain  j 

white  petticoats  with  simple  hems  or  a  few  | 

tucks  but  not  a  scrap  of  lace  upon  them.    Do  | 

not  waste  your  money  on  fancy  neckwear.  It  j 
is  unprofessional.   Have  plenty  of  plain  linen 

stocks  or  collars,  and  white  ties  plainly  hemmed,  I 

with  cuffs  to  match,  and  quantities  of  large  j 
white  nursing  aprons.    Your  shoes  should  be 
soft  and  easy.   You  will  be  told  what  quantity 

and  sort  of  underwear  will  be  needed.   Every-  i 

thing  must  be  clearly  marked  with  your  name.  ] 

Once  more — your  success  as  a  probationer 

will  depend  largely  on  your  neatness.   A  pro-  ] 

bationer  is  allowed  a  limited  amount  of  laun-  | 

dry  work.  Do  not  depend  solely  upon  this,  but  5 

take  with  you  enough  money  to  pay  for  extra  ] 

laundry.   One  nurse  who  made  an  unusual  rec-  | 

ord  as  a  probationer  says  she  owed  her  success  ! 

to  a  laundry  bill  of  ten  dollars  a  month.  I 

Some  girls  manage  to  go  through  the  entire  ! 

course  without  receiving  any  money  from  home,  | 

but  this  means  rigid  self-denial,  as  the  salary  I 

paid  by  the  school  is  intended  to  meet  only  i 

your  expenses  in  the  way  of  supplies  needed  i 

for  your  tuition,  books,  uniforms,  washing,  etc.  i 

And  every  probationer  should  take  with  her  ^ 

the  amount  of  her  railroad  fare  home.    The  I 

superintendent  of  the  training-school  assumes  j 

absolutely  no  responsibility  for  your  future.  ^ 


38  TRAINED  NURSING 


If  you  fail,  you  must  pay  your  own  way  home. 
And  what  is  more,  you  will  not  be  told  why  you 
failed! 

Now  the  word  comes  that  you  are  to  report 
for  duty.  Pack  your  trunk  carefully,  not  fail- 
ing to  put  in  a  stout  little  strong-box  with  a  pad- 
lock, for  the  superintendent  assumes  no  respon- 
sibility for  your  property  unless  you  place 
money,  rings,  etc.,  in  the  office  safe,  and  you  are 
away  from  your  room  or  dormitory  most  of  the 
time. 

On  reaching  the  city  where  the  training-school 
is  located  do  not  go  to  a  hotel,  and  then,  with 
the  air  of  conferring  a  favor,  write  to  the  super- 
intendent that  you  are  in  town  and  ready  to 
come  at  her  call.  She  has  called  you.  Go  di- 
rectly to  the  hospital— and  drop  your  individu- 
alftj^  on  its  front  stoop.  From  the  moment  you 
enter  you  are  a  mere  cog  in  this  great  machine 
of  alleviation  and  mercy. 

Just  here  let  me  tell  you  an  incident  in  the 
first  day  of  school  of  a  now  successful  nurse. 
She  entered  the  tiny  room  assigned  to  her  on 
the  top  floor  of  the  dormitory  building,  flung 
her  suitcase,  her  umbrella,  magazine,  etc.,  on 
the  narrow  bed  and  seated  herself  thereon  to 
remove  her  hat  and  veil.  She  was  just  tucking 
the  latter  into  her  diminutive  locker,  when — 
enter  the  superintendent  of  nurses !   This  per- 


TRAINED  NURSING  39 


sonage  gave  a  quick  glance  at  the  bed  and  re- 
marked : 

"Why,  really,  it  looks  as  if  some  one  had  been 
sitting  on  that  bed." 

^'Yes,  Miss  Blank, replied  Miss  Innocence, 
^^Ihave." 

Never  do  it  again.  Once  a  bed  is  made  up, 
nothing  should  be  laid  on  it,  not  even  a  hand- 
kerchief. ' ' 

Do  you  begin  to  understand  that  the  regime 
is  not  cruel,  but  strict?  Little  blunders  might 
cost  a  human  life.  There  must  be  no  such  word 
as  ^ ^forget''  in  your  vocabulary.  Neither  must 
you  ever  say  ^ '  Why  ? ' '  Just  do  as  you  are  told. 
You  are  not  there  to  improve  the  system  of  the 
management.  It  has  been  all  tried  out,  perhaps 
before  you  were  born.  For  the  time  being  you 
are  a  nonentity,  whose  sole  duty  is  to  obey  im- 
plicitly, unquestioningly. 

Every  one  is  watching  you.  You  are  sur- 
rounded by  spies  who  study  your  every  move- 
ment. They  will  notice  the  lace  stock  that  ought 
to  be  plain  linen,  and  the  raveling  from  your 
petticoat  that  should  never  have  found  its  way 
to  a  hospital  training-school.  They  will  peer 
into  your  bureau  drawers  merely  to  see  in  what 
order  you  keep  your  personal  belongings,  and 
some  one  will  go  into  your  room  every  morning 
to  make  sure  that  you  tidied  it  perfectly  before 
going  to  breakfast  or  on  duty. 


40 


TRAINED  NUESING 


Many  girls  ask  what  is  expected  of  a  pro- 
bationer in  the  way  of  actual  work.  During  the 
period  of  probation  will  they  be  given  a  fair 
test  of  their  ability? 

The  following  program  of  the  first  eight 
weeks '  work  laid  out  for  probationers  in  a  New 
England  hospital  will  convey  some  idea  of  the 
scope  and  nature  of  the  work: 

Hospital  etiquette  and  rules,  nurses^  ethics; 
washing,  nourishment  dishes,  care  of  refrigera- 
tors, gas-stoves,  cupboards,  trays,  serving 
meals,  nourishment ;  care  of  lavatory  and  uten- 
sils in  lavatory;  bed-making;  bed  bath;  pa- 
tients' morning  and  evening  toilets;  admitting 
stretcher  cases,  undressing  patients,  entrance 
bath,  listing  and  care  of  clothing  and  valuables ; 
filling  and  applying  ice-caps,  hot-water  bags; 
care  of  linen  press ;  washing  hair,  care  of  back, 
mouth,  teeth,  etc.;  feeding  helpless  patients; 
taking  and  recording  temperatures,  pulse  and 
respiration;  mustard  plasters,  poultices,  etc.; 
giving  of  medicines ;  special  class  instruction  in 
printing,  charting  and  diets.'' 

Once  you  have  proven  your  worth  as  a  pro- 
bationer, and  are  accepted  as  a  student  nurse, 
you  virtually  turn  yourself  and  your  services 
over  to  a  hospital  for  a  term  varying  from 
two  to  three  years.  During  that  time  you  will 
be  provided  with  lodging,  food  and  care  in  case 
of  illness.  Either  your  uniforms,  laundry  and 


TRAINED  NURSING 


41 


text-books  will  be  provided  or  yon  will  receive 
a  small  allowance  which  will  cover  these  ex- 
penses. Yonr  honrs  will  be  practically  twelve 
a  day,  with  brief  respites  during  each  day  for 
outdoor  exercise,  a  half -holiday  each  week,  and 
generally  half  of  each  Sunday.  Two  weeks' 
vacation  is  granted  during  the  summer.  You 
will  live  at  the  home  for  nurses  connected  with 
the  hospital  and  will  be  subject  to  its  rules  and 
regulations,  precisely  as  if  you  were  a  hospital 
patient  instead  of  a  nurse. 

If  you  are  unwilling  to  give  up  this  much 
time,  this  much  strength,  this  much  liberty,  to 
prepare  for  the  profession,  do  not  aim  to  be  a 
trained  nurse.  Nothing  short  of  this  will  pre- 
pare you. 

It  seems  hardly  necessary  to  outline  the 
career  of  a  nurse  after  graduation,  but  as  many 
girls  desire  such  particulars,  I  will  add  that 
in  cities  of  any  size  the  graduate  nurse  who  has 
aroused  the  favorable  interest  of  physicians 
connected  with  the  hospital  seldom  lacks  work 
at  $25  a  week.  On  the  other  hand,  experienced 
nurses  declare  that  the  work  is  so  exacting  and 
so  wearing,  physically  and  nervously,  that  no 
graduate  nurse  should  attempt  to  work  more 
than  ten  months  in  a  year,  which  means  that  her 
cash  income  will  be  a  thousand  dollars  a  year. 
Her  board  is  of  course  included  wherever 
she  nurses,  but  she  generally  maintains  a  resi- 


42  TEAINED  NUESING 


dence  in  some  registry  or  good  rooming  liouse. 
Her  uniforms  and  laundry  form  a  heavy  item  of 
expense. 

Graduate  nurses  do  not  always  take  up  gen- 
eral practice,  but  may  secure  positions  on  hos- 
pital staffs,  perhaps  in  the  very  school  from 
which  they  have  just  graduated,  or  in  smaller 
out-of-town  hospitals.  All  large  State  institu- 
tions and  private  charities  employ  trained 
nurses.  This  list  includes  houses  of  correction 
and  refuge,  asylums  and  homes  for  crippled, 
blind  and  mentally  defective  children,  homes 
for  the  aged,  and  large  schools  where  the  nurse 
works  under  the  matron.  Factories  and  de- 
partment stores  also  employ  nurses  to  guard 
the  general  health  of  employees  and  act  in  case 
of  accident.  In  many  cities  the  Board  of  Edu- 
cation maintains  a  corps  of  nurses,  health  de- 
partments also  give  them  employment,  and 
nearly  every  large  city  has  its  visiting  nurses. 
The  highest  salaried  posts  are  those  of  super- 
intendents in  hospitals  and  sanitariums,  but  ex- 
perienced nurses  agree  that  a  period  of  general 
practice  is  desirable  as  preparation  for  any 
salaried  position  in  an  institution. 

If  you  cannot  take  a  complete  course,  and 
you  are  still  determined  to  work  for  the  sick, 
then  you  must  select  different  lines  from  those 
followed  by  the  trained  nurse.  You  may  be- 
come what  is  known  as  a  convalescent  nurse,  or 


TEAINED  NURSING  43 


a  trained  nursemaid,  or  you  can  specialize  on 
massage  or  cookery  for  the  sick,  or  you  can 
make  a  business  of  reading  aloud  to  the  sick. 
But  do  not  imagine  for  one  instant  that  among 
doctors  you  will  have  the  same  standing  as  the 
trained  nurse,  nor  will  yi>u  command  the  same 
income. 

Several  organizations,  notably  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association  in  large  cities, 
offer  courses  in  convalescent  nursing.  In  this 
course  you  are  prepared  to  take  the  place  of 
the  trained  nurse,  when  the  patient  is  so  close 
to  recovery  that  scientific  vigilance  may  be  re- 
laxed and  mere  attendance  and  entertainment 
substituted.  Convalescent  nurses  are  employed 
to  relieve  trained  nurses  while  the  latter  take 
their  daily  outdoor  exercises;  also  in  some 
households  to  wait  upon  chronic  invalids  who 
have  become  fretful  and  captious,  and  who  re- 
quire diversion  as  well  as  light  attendance. 
Work  of  this  sort  is  secured  through  registries 
and  physicians,  and  pays  from  seven  to  fifteen 
dollars  a  week,  according  to  the  amount  of  at- 
tendance and  work  required. 

Trained  nursemaids  are  now  in  great  demand 
in  the  nurseries  of  the  rich.  They  step  into  the 
shoes  of  the  trained  nurse,  take  complete  charge 
of  the  new  baby  in  the  household  and  often  as- 
sume direction  of  the  nursery  complete,  order- 


44  TRAINED  NURSING 


ing  the  meals,  and  guarding  the  health  of  the 
older  children.  In  such  instances  there  is  gen- 
erally an  under-maid  who  performs  the  menial 
nursery  duties.  The  semi-trained  nurse  wears 
a  uniform  and  is  a  sort  of  upper  servant  in  the 
household.  Her  salary  varies  from  twenty  to 
thirty  dollars  a  month,  together  with  board, 
lodging  and  laundry,  according  to  her  duties 
and  training.  Such  training  is  secured  in 
charity  hospitals  for  babies,  and  the  course  runs 
from  six  to  nine  months.  The  responsibilities, 
however,  are  very  great,  as  the  woman  who  em- 
ploys a  semi-trained  nurse  generally  has  many 
outside  interests  and  throws  all  responsibili- 
ties upon  her  employee. 

An  expert  masseuse  can  build  up  a  good  busi- 
ness in  this  day  of  nervous  womanhood,  of  high- 
strung  society  women  and  overworked  profes- 
sional and  business  women.  Either  the  Swedish 
system  of  massage  or  the  Weir  Mitchell  system, 
physicians  say,  should  be  mastered  by  the 
masseuse  who  expects  to  succeed.  Both  require 
many  months  of  study,  superb  strength  and 
that  peculiar  quality  of  personal  magnetism 
which  makes  the  exhausted  patient  respond  to 
the  efforts  of  her  masseuse.  A  masseuse  is 
paid  by  the  hour  or  by  the  treatment,  and  se- 
cures work  through  physicians,  registries  for 
nurses,  sanitariums,  Turkish  baths  and  beauty 


TRAINED  NUESING 


45 


parlors,  where  nervously  exhausted  women  go 
to  recuperate. 

General  massage  is  taught  in  all  hospital 
training-schools,  but  the  specialist  should  take 
private  instruction  from  scientific  experts. 


CHAPTER  IV 


AET  FOE  THE  GIEL  WHO  MUST  BE  SELF-SUPPOETING 

In  a  work  of  this  sort,  when  discussing  art  as 
a  means  of  livelihood,  we  must  consider  it  as  a 
practical  profession,  not  as  a  divine  gift  or  in- 
spiration. This  book  is  written  for  the  girl 
who  must  become  economically  independent 
within  two  years  at  least.  For  that  reason  we 
will  not  consider  the  training,  environment  and 
work  of  the  girl  who  aspires  to  portraiture, 
miniature-painting,  or  oil  and  water-color  mas- 
terpieces of  that  moving  character  which  repre- 
sent the  highest  type  of  the  fine  arts,  and  which 
require  years  of  patient  work,  to  say  nothing 
of  more  or  less  genius.  Such  girls  must  either 
have  enough  funds  to  study  for  years  in  the 
best  ateliers  of  America  and  Europe  or  they 
must  be  willing  to  wage  an  indefinite  warfare 
against  poverty  and  discouragement. 

There  are  comparatively  few  girls  in  Amer- 
ica possessed  of  such  boundless  ambition  and 
persistency,  but  there  are  thousands  of  young 
women  who  show  decided  artistic  talent,  and 

46 


ART 


who  realize  that  they  must  either  turn  this  gift 
to  practical  financial  account  or  look  to  other 
avenues  of  money-making.  Nor  is  there  any 
reason  why  a  girl,  who  can  afford  a  few  years 
of  hard  work  in  a  good  school,  should  hesitate 
to  develop  her  one  talent  along  artistic  lines. 
The  practical  worker  in  any  line  of  artistic  en- 
deavor can  find  a  market  for  her  wares  or  a 
salaried  position,  but  she  must  not  fail  to  place 
due  emphasis  on  that  little  word  practical.'^ 
The  man  who  stands  ready  to  pay  for  artistic 
products  wants  his  art-workers  to  be  as  busi- 
ness-like as  his  stenographers  or  salesmen.  The 
day  of  the  lackadaisical  maiden  with  unkempt 
locks,  bedraggled  skirts  and  dreamy  eyes  star- 
ing into  the  blue  heavens  for  an  inspiration,  are 
past,  so  far  as  the  publishing  and  manufactur- 
ing world  is  concerned.  While  such  a  girl  waits 
for  an  inspiration,  a  practical  worker  with  per- 
haps less  artistic  ideals,  but  a  keener  apprecia- 
tion of  her  employer's  needs  and  the  importance 
of  punctuality,  secures  all  the  orders. 

In  other  words,  the  girl  who  imagines  that 
she  can  put  her  artistic  talent  to  account  must 
start  out  aright,  with  a  perfect  understanding 
of  the  business-like  atmosphere  in  which  she 
will  work.  She  will  have  to  work  regularly,  not 
spasmodically.  She  will  have  to  deliver  her 
product  on  time — or  have  the  order  canceled. 
And  she  will  have  to  deliver  the  sort  of  work 


AET 


her  employer  orders.  She  cannot  substitute 
some  sudden,  inspirational  idea.  If  she  is  one 
of  those  rare  creatures,  a  genius,  an  iconoclast 
in  art,  if  she  must  do  things  in  her  own  way  or 
not  at  all,  then  she  must  not  enter  what  we  may 
term  the  field  of  commercial  art. 

Broadly  speaking,  girls  who  want  to  earn 
their  living  by  pencil,  pen  or  brush  may  be  di- 
vided into  two  classes :  those  who  wish  to  work 
in  their  own  homes,  and  those  who  can  and  will 
fare  forth  in  search  of  work  and  salaried  posi- 
tions. The  resident  of  a  large  city,  like  New 
York,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  Chicago  or  San 
Francisco,  naturally  has  the  advantage  over  the 
girl  in  a  smaller  city  or  village  or  on  a  farm. 
She  can  do  the  most  practical  forms  of  art  work, 
such  as  designing  for  textiles  and  metals,  fash- 
ion drawings,  book  covers  and  illustrating,  and 
still  live  at  home,  while  the  girl  living  far  from 
an  art,  manufacturing  or  publishing  center 
must  leave  home  to  gain  practical  experience 
and  to  make  her  reputation. 

The  girl  with  the  brush  who  cannot  make 
this  change  in  residence  must  cultivate  her  tal- 
ents so  as  to  use  them  in  her  environment.  Only 
one  girl  in  a  thousand  can  establish  herself  as 
an  art-worker  through  correspondence.  This 
does  not  apply  to  high-grade  illustrators,  many 
of  whom  prefer  to  work  far  from  publishing 
centers,  but  to  girls  who  wish  to  secure  regular 


AET 


49 


work,  perhaps  salaried  positions  as  designers 
along  some  particular  line»  Designing  of 
jewelry  is  generally  done  in  the  manufacturing 
plants,  managers  of  fashion  syndicates  or 
fashion  magazines  want  illustrators  to  work 
under  their  direction,  even  makers  of  wall- 
paper or  carpet  patterns  must  be  near  enough 
to  the  factory  to  confer  constantly  with  those 
who  use  their  designs. 

This  explanation  is  made  at  the  very  hegin- 
ning  of  the  chapter  because  so  few  girls  from 
farms,  small  towns  and  inland  cities  appreciate 
the  importance  of  being  on  the  ground  to  mar- 
ket their  wares,  or  the  vital  necessity  of  making 
their  work  practical  and  utilitarian.  Many  girls 
imagine  that  they  can  take  an  art  course  by  cor- 
respondence and  put  city  girls  out  of  business 
with  the  designs  they  will  be  turning  out  in  a 
few  months.  While  I  think  the  correspondence 
course  is  a  boon  to  the  isolated  girl  with  artistic 
talent,  I  want  each  of  these  girls  to  understand 
that  the  day  will  come  when  she  will  realize  the 
stem  necessity  of  direct  teaching  and  of  being 
in  the  market  with  her  wares. 

We  will  discuss  first  the  future  of  the  girl 
who  is  about  to  graduate  from  the  high  school, 
who  has  displayed  considerable  talent  with  her 
pencil  or  brush,  and  who  can  afford  to  give  at 
least  two  years  to  the  study  of  art. 

She  may  become  either  an  instructor  or  a 


50 


ART 


worker.  If  teaching  appeals  to  her,  if  she  has 
the  natural  pedagogical  instinct,  she  will  suc- 
ceed either  in  a  salaried  position  or  as  a  private 
instructor.  But  if  she  is  the  sort  of  girl  who  de- 
mands practical  results  of  her  own  hands,  if  her 
tastes  are  mechanical  rather  than  theoretical, 
if  she  is  happiest  when  working  alone  and 
watching  the  work  come  out  from  under  her 
pencil,  then  she  will  secure  the  best  results  and 
find  the  surest  avenue  to  contentment  as  a  de- 
signer, illustrator  or  worker  in  arts  and  crafts. 
No  girl  should  select  a  course  of  art  until  she 
has  given  this  problem  earnest  consideration 
and  has  decided  on  the  use  to  which  she  will 
put  her  knowledge.  Much  time  and  money  can 
be  saved  by  settling  this  question  in  advance, 
and  selecting  the  most  expeditious  or  practical 
course  of  training.  To  be  sure,  a  change  of 
mind  and  heart  may  come  after  the  student  be- 
gins to  work  at  an  art  school,  but  as  a  rule  a 
high-school  graduate  is  able  to  decide  whether 
she  will  find  her  greatest  happiness  and  use- 
fulness as  a  teacher  or  as  a  worker.  The  girl 
who  hates  the  schoolroom and  has  no  natural 
interest  in  children  or  power  to  attract  them, 
will  succeed  much  better  as  a  worker  along  the 
more  practical  art  lines  than  as  an  instructor  in 
either  public  schools  or  private  classes. 

As  the  girl  inexperienced  in  the  business 
world  knows  little  of  art  work  which  has  a  com- 


AET 


51 


mercial  value  in  manufacturing  plants  or  pub- 
lishing houses,  we  will  discuss  first  these  meth- 
ods of  money-making. 

Among  the  courses  offered  to  girls  desiring 
to  become  practical  workers  are  the  following: 
General  art,  drawing,  painting  and  illustra- 
tion, which  lead  to  positions  as  staff  illustrators 
on  newspapers  and  magazines,  or  free-lancing 
as  an  illustrator;  decorative  and  applied  design 
which  leads  to  practical  designing  for  book 
covers,  pages  and  illumination;  stencils,  silks, 
damasks,  rugs,  wall-papers  and  wall  coverings 
of  all  sorts,  lamps,  candlesticks,  grilles,  stained 
glass  windows,  mosaics,  carvings,  furniture, 
etc.;  interior  decoration  or  architecture,  either 
of  which  lead  to  positions  with  architects  or  in- 
terior decorators  and  eventually  to  an  independ- 
ent venture;  and  the  course  in  jewelry,  metal 
chasing,  enameling  and  medal  work  which  leads 
to  salaried  positions  or  good  prices  for  indi- 
vidual designs  with  jewelry  and  arts  and  crafts 
manufacturers. 

The  time  required  for  training  varies  from 
two  to  four  years,  according  to  the  school  se- 
lected and  the  work  done  by  the  student.  At  an 
endowed  institution  where  no  specific  time  is  set 
for  the  completion  of  the  courses,  one  pupil  will 
secure  a  position  at  the  end  of  two  years  and 
prove  a  satisfactory  worker,  while  the  girl  who 
started  at  her  side  will  work  in  the  school  two 


52 


AET 


years  longer,  and  then  start  at  a  lower  salary 
than  her  more  ambitious  and  earnest  fellow- 
worker  student. 

The  course  in  general  art  work,  leading  to  il- 
lustration at  the  Cooper  Institute,  New  York 
City,  runs  four  years,  yet  a  girl  who  had  studied 
only  eighteen  months,  met  with  financial  re- 
verses, entered  the  offices  of  a  fashion  syndi- 
cate and  under  the  practical  direction  of  its 
manager  whipped  her  somewhat  crude  work  in- 
to practical  shape,  with  just  the  dash  of  origi- 
nality which  is  sometimes  born  of  desperation. 
"Within  a  month  she  was  earning  fifteen  dollars 
a  week.  To-day  she  is  head  of  the  illustrated 
fashion  department  of  a  magazine  for  women, 
and  is  drawing  a  very  comfortable  salary. 

The  girl  who  can  take  up  the  study  of  art 
as  her  sister  may  be  studying  stenography,  clos- 
ing her  ears  to  the  call  of  Bohemia,  and  work- 
ing as  if  she  were  engaged  in  a  trade  at  which 
she  must  serve  a  stern  apprenticeship,  need  not 
dawdle  away  four  years  of  youth,  energy  and 
family  funds.  Her  work  will  be  marketable  not 
when  the  school  hands  her  a  diploma,  but  when 
it  has  a  practical  market  value. 

From  this  you  must  not  think  that  I  advise 
hasty,  superficial  work.  What  menaces  the  suc- 
cess of  the  average  out-of-town  girl  sent  to  a 
city  art  school  by  her  parents,  is  misconstruing 
that  famous  line:    ^^Art  is  long  and  time  is 


AET 


fleeting/'  She  thinks  she  must  take  indefinite 
time  to  study  and  gain  inspiration,  when  steady, 
regular,  concentrated  work  is  far  more  impor- 
tant than  what  she  terms  a    gradual  growth." 

There  was  a  time  when  students  were  urged 
not  to  draw  fashions  or  enter  the  services  of  any 
syndicate  which  supplies  cheap  magazines  with 
head  and  tail-pieces,  fashions  or  pattern  draw- 
ings and  illustrations,  but  there  has  been  a  dis- 
tinct change  of  sentiment  on  this  question.  The 
practical  training  received  in  the  art  rooms  of 
such  a  syndicate  and  the  education  in  the  value 
of  lines,  light  and  shade,  as  seen  in  actual  repro- 
duction, are  superior  to  that  which  can  be  se- 
cured in  an  art  school  where  the  work  is  never 
reproduced  on  either  fast  or  slow  presses.  The 
few  bad  tricks  or  habits  which  a  student  may 
develop  in  the  rush  work  of  such  a  syndicate  of- 
fice are  more  than  balanced  by  the  practical  re- 
sults of  seeing  her  work  reproduced  in  news- 
paper or  magazine. 

Girls  completing  the  course  of  illustration  in 
a  publishing  or  manufacturing  center  can  find 
positions  in  publishing  houses,  as  staff  illus- 
trators, particularly  in  fashions  or  pattern 
work,  or  making  drawings  for  the  advertising 
manager  of  department  stores  where  illustra- 
tions are  prepared  for  daily  newspapers  and 
periodicals,  or  in  advertising  agencies  where 
catchy  illustrations  for  exploiting  proprietary 


54 


ART 


articles  are  always  in  demand ;  or  if  the  worker 
has  a  particularly  novel  and  fetching  treatment 
of  feminine  foibles^  she  can  secure  a  salary  or 
space  rates  doing  timely  drawings  for  the  daily 
papers,  particularly  the  afternoon  editions. 

Another  very  profitable  field  for  the  illustra- 
tor who  wants  quick  returns  is  catalogue  work, 
illustrating  the  catalogues  put  out  by  high- 
grade  manufacturers  or  wholesalers.  Any  girl 
who  secures  practical  training  along  these  cash- 
return  lines  will  be  laying  up  money  and  secur- 
ing experience  against  the  day  when  she  feels 
artistically  strong  enough  to  branch  out  as  an 
illustrator  of  stories  and  books.  And  further- 
more, she  may  avoid  many  months  spent  in 
treading  the  valley  of  humiliation  if  she  will  do 
this  more  practical  and  yet  artistic  work,  before 
storming  the  portals  of  big  publishing  houses. 

The  girl  who  selects  decorative  and  applied 
design  seldom  secures  a  salaried  position,  for 
by  the  time  she  has  completed  this  course  she 
realizes  that  a  design  which  is  worth  anything 
at  all  will  bring  a  better  figure  as  an  individual 
creation  than  if  she  is  employed  on  salary.  Still 
there  are  manufacturing  plants  which  employ 
artists  on  salary,  and  the  girl  who  prefers  a 
small  but  sure  income  will  seek  such  work,  rang- 
ing from  fifteen  to  twenty-five  dollars  a  week. 

All  the  leading  manufacturers  of  hand-made 
jewelry  or  specially  designed  objects  of  art, 


ART 


55 


medals,  enameling,  etc.,  employ  women  and  pay 
good  salaries,  while  women  are  succeeding  not 
only  as  assistants,  but  as  independent  architects 
and  interior  decorators. 

It  is  almost  as  hard  to  give  a  scale  of  salaries 
or  earnings  for  art  workers  as  it  is  to  state  how 
much  time  they  must  expend  in  preparation. 
With  both  questions  the  answer  depends  upon 
the  girl.  There  are  patient,  conscientious,  but 
mechanical  workers,  drawing  fashion  designs 
in  New  York  art  rooms  at  twenty  dollars  a  week, 
while  less  conscientious  workers  with  more 
originality  and  that  rare  offering  to  a  harried 
editor,  an  idea,  are  drawing  fifty,  sixty  or  even 
seventy-five  dollars  a  week,  making  near-cari- 
catures of  their  own  sex  or  drawing  charmingly 
impossible  little  ladies  for  metropolitan  dailies. 

There  are  girls  patiently  redrawing  plans 
and  specifications  for  men  architects  with  ideas, 
for  fifteen  dollars  a  week,  while  right  across 
the  street  a  woman  who  can  conceive,  as  well  as 
reproduce,  ideas  earns  her  ten  thousand  a  year 
designing  depots  and  business  blocks  of  the 
most  utilitarian  sort. 

There  are  girls  who  studied  interior  decora- 
tion from  composition  and  color  to  sanitary 
science  and  electricity,  but,  because  they  lack 
originality  and  business  or  administrative 
ability,  they  are  working  on  a  salary  of  fifteen 
dollars  a  week,  while  a  fellow-student  with  ex- 


ART 


ecutive  ability  and  push  lias  her  own  business 
and  is  furnishing  and  decorating  clubhouses, 
hotels  and  private  homes. 

Mere  training  in  the  best  school  of  America 
will  not  turn  out  financially  successful  work- 
ers. It  may  develop  an  artistic,  finished  work- 
woman, but  it  cannot  train  her  to  make  money. 
She  must  prove  her  business  or  economic  worth 
by  the  manner  in  which  she  markets  her  wares. 

The  cost  of  such  an  art  training  varies.  A 
girl  can  spend  a  thousand  dollars  a  year  for 
tuition,  studio  rent  and  living  expenses  while 
attending  a  New  York  art  school,  or  she  can 
study  at  Cooper  Institute  for  a  nominal  figure, 
two  hundred  dollars  a  year  covering  her  ex- 
penses, light-housekeeping,  tuition  and  inci- 
dentals. Or  she  can  work  by  day  and  study 
free  at  night  schools. 

The  would-be  art  teacher  must  outline  her 
course  of  study  with  infinite  care,  as  the  posi- 
tion she  secures  will  depend  not  so  much  upon 
her  ability,  however  important  that  may  be,  as 
upon  her  diploma  and  the  name  of  the  institu- 
tion from  which  she  graduates.  Before  select- 
ing the  course,  let  her  decide  upon  the  sort  of 
position  she  expects  to  fill.  If  she  intends  to 
become  a  teacher  in  a  fashionable  private  school 
or  to  rise  to  the  post  of  teacher  of  art  in  the 
high  school  or  supervisor  of  art  in  the  city  pub- 
lic schools,  then  she  might  as  well  decide  at  once 


AET 


57 


that  she  must  have  a  college  degree,  such  as  is 
furnished  by  Teachers  College,  Columbia  Uni- 
versity, or  a  normal  training  course  of  equal 
standing.  This  will  represent  at  least  two  years' 
work  in  what  is  known  as  a  normal  art  and 
manual  training  course,  in  addition  to  the  regu- 
lar, high  school  course  of  four  years.  The  two 
years'  normal  work  will  cost,  including  living 
expenses  and  tuition,  about  one  thousand 
dollars.  If  she  intends  to  become  a  teacher  in 
the  graded  schools,  a  normal  course,  added  to 
the  regulation  high  school  course,  with  spe- 
cialization in  drawing,  will  be  sufficient. 

Special  teachers  of  drawing  are  paid  from 
seven  hundred  dollars  a  year  up,  the  teacher  of 
drawing  in  a  high  school  never  receives  less 
than  one  thousand  dollars  per  year,  and  a  super- 
visor is  paid  from  twelve  hundred  a  year  up, 
according  to  the  size  of  the  city  and  the  scale 
of  teachers '  salaries. 

In  conclusion,  a  few  words  to  the  girl  who 
cannot  take  a  comprehensive  course,  either  as 
a  practical  art  worker  or  as  ar  teacher,  and  who 
must  earn  money  in  her  home  town,  perhaps  in 
her  own  parlor.  Only  one  girl  in  a  thousand 
can  study  at  home,  remain  at  home  and  still 
market  her  wares  in  a  distant  art  or  manufac- 
turing center.  The  thousandth  girl  is  a  born 
illustrator,  whose  work  compels  the  attention  of 
art  editors.   Even  then,  eventually,  she  must 


58 


ART 


make  frequent  trips  to  publishing  centers.  Or 
if  she  is  a  worker  along  the  more  practical  lines, 
she  turns  out  such  original  designs  in  arts  and 
crafts  wares,  china  painting,  stenciling,  etc., 
that  proprietors  of  exclusive  shops  are  forced 
to  notice  her  work,  even  though  she  may  not  be 
able  to  confer  with  them  in  person.  But  the 
thousandth  girl  is  not  the  average  girl,  and 
that  is  why  managers  of  art  stationery  stores, 
women 's  exchanges,  and  art  shops,  and  private 
individuals  whose  names  appear  in  public  print 
are  literally  deluged  with  impossible  handwork 
from  trained  and  untrained  art-workers  in 
smaller  cities  and  villages.  Their  output  in- 
cludes crude  hand-painted  china,  satin  cushion- 
tops,  pincushions,  menus,  favors,  place  cards 
and  postals,  not  original,  but  copied  from  litho- 
graphs which  sell  for  a  mere  song. 

These  workers  cannot  find  a  market  in  a  dis- 
tant city.  They  must  seek  patrons  and  work 
up  trade  in  their  own  towns  or  adjacent  cities, 
where  they  can  ascertain  what  women  with 
money  wish  to  purchase.  The  crude  oil  paint- 
ing of  a  basket  of  peaches  which  won  first  prize 
at  the  county  fair  may  sell  to  one  of  the  judges, 
but  the  city  art  dealer  handles  only  work  by  a 
man  or  woman  with  reputation.  The  pretty 
trinkets  made  of  birchbark  or  the  postals  with 
scenes  of  the  local  pleasure  resorts  or  monu- 
ments will  sell  to  tourists  visiting  the  artist's 


ART 


59 


town,  but  tliey  will  not  appeal  to  the  buyer  for 
an  art  stationery  store  a  thousand  or  two  thou- 
sand miles  away. 

The  young  woman  with  mediocre  talent — and 
she  will  soon  find  her  level  if  she  goes  to  a  large 
city  and  competes  with  original  workers — ^will 
do  best  in  her  own  town,  organizing  classes  for 
young  girls  who  want  to  paint  Christmas  and 
birthday  gifts,  holding  Easter  and  Christmas 
sales,  making  up  souvenirs  for  tourists,  and 
creating  a  demand  among  local  social  leaders 
for  hand-painted  prizes  and  favors.  If  she  can 
build  up  a  reputation  for  introducing  into  her 
community  the  latest  fads  of  metropolitan  so- 
ciety, she  will  soon  have  an  established  home 
trade  and  a  certain  income  which  she  can  never 
secure  by  dealing  with  city  merchants  or  ex- 
changes, through  the  mails. 


CHAPTER  V; 


DKESSMAKING 

Dressmaking  is  a  trade  of  the  veriest  drudg- 
ery at  a  small  weekly  wage,  or  it  is  a  commer- 
cial venture  which  yields  very  big  financial  re- 
turns.  There  is  no  middle  ground. 

On  its  altar  many  a  conscientious  woman  has 
sacrificed  youth,  girlish  happiness  and  health. 
Upon  woman's  fondness  for  dress  and  innate 
American  extravagance,  other  wom.en  have 
built  a  competence.  Dressmaking  will  yield 
large  financial  returns  only  to  the  woman  who 
has  the  true  business  or  commercial  instinct, 
and  who  would  succeed  equally  w^ell  if  she 
opened  a  millinery  shop,  managed  a  shoe  fac- 
tory, or  ran  a  public  typewriting  ofilce. 

The  mere  fact  that  you  set  dainty  stitches  will 
not  make  you  a  financial  success  as  a  dress- 
maker.  You  must  have  what  is  known  as  a 

business  head.'^  Here  is  a  case  in  point, 
rather  personal,  to  be  sure,  but  one  for  whose 
truth  I  can  vouch. 

During  my  last  year  in  school  manual  train- 

60 


DRESSMAKING 


ing  was  just  beginning  to  invade  educational 
circles,  and  I  belonged  to  what  was  perhaps  the 
first  sewing-class  in  the  high  school  of  a  large 
Eastern  city.  In  September  we  started  setting 
stitches,  sewing  seams  and  making  buttonholes. 
By  commencement  day,  in  June,  we  were  ex- 
pected to  be  able  to  cut,  fit  and  make  a  garment. 
My  dainty  stitches  and  accurate  work  in  the 
sewing-class  helped  materially  to  raise  my  gen- 
eral average.  In  fact,  my  neatly-made  percale 
dress  was  awarded  the  highest  possible  per- 
centage, but  later  in  the  summer,  when  I  tried 
to  wear  that  dress,  it  looked — ^well,  in  a  kindly 
spirit,  we  will  call  it  queer. 

In  the  same  class,  almost  rubbing  elbows  with 
me,  was  a  girl  whose  sewing  nearly  drove  our 
dear  old  teacher  distracted.  Her  stitches  wan- 
dered over  the  material  at  their  own  sweet  will. 
Her  buttonholes  were  a  class  scandal.  Her 
garment  fell  to  pieces,  unless  some  of  us  helped 
to  fasten  off  the  thread-ends.  But  the  little 
mull  dress  which  she  made  for  her  graduation 
stunt  was  distractingly  dainty,  albeit  none  of 
us  could  vouch  for  the  steadfastness  of  its 
seams.  She  was  marked  very  low  by  the  con- 
scientious judges  of  needlework,  but  later  in 
the  summer,  on  the  boardwalk  at  Cape  May, 
N.  J.,  that  little  frock  added  several  scalps  to 
her  proposal  belt. 

A  few  years  later  that  girl  opened  a  profit- 


62 


DEESSMAKINO 


able  dressmaking  establishment,  tbongb  she  had 
to  hire  women  to  set  the  stiches  according  to 
her  designs.  Later  she  became  buyer  for  a 
firm,  making  semi-annual  trips  abroad.  To-day 
she  is  head  of  a  fashion  and  pattern  syndicate, 
enjoying  a  large  income,  and  she  is  wonderfully 
happy  and  satisfied  in  her  work.  I  might  still 
be  making  very  neat  buttonholes  in  her  dress- 
making establishment,  but  if  I  want  an  artistic 
corsage-bow  or  a  smart  summer  girdle  evolved 
from  ribbon,  I  have  to  tip  a  girl  at  the  ribbon 
counter  to  make  it  for  me.  So  you  see  the  girl 
who  received  the  highest  percentage  as  a  mere 
setter  of  stitches  mi^ht  have  starved,  or  at  least 
become  a  tired  drudge  at  dressmaking,  while 
the  girl  who  knew  the  value  of  lines,  color  com- 
binations and  effects,  although  she  did  make 
round  and  ragged  buttonholes,  has  a  thriving 
business,  built  on  the  same  trade. 

There  is  a  small,  steady  income  in  ordinary 
dressmaking.  You  can  make  a  trifle  more  than 
sweat-shop  wages  if  you  are  a  neat  seamstress 
and  have  good  health.  But  the  big  money  in 
dressmaking  is  made  by  the  women  who  know 
how  to  profit  by  the  labor  of  others,  who  can 
catch  and  hold  trade  by  their  original  designs, 
and  who  are  sincerely  interested  in  making 
their  wealthy  customers  look  their  best.  Make 
a  woman  better-looking,  whether  by  massage, 
hair-dressing,  millinery  or  dressmaking,  and 


DRESSMAKING 


63 


the  laborer  will  be  considered  worthy  of  her 
hire. 

We  will  take  it  for  granted  that  you  have 
fairly  good  health,  strong  eyesight,  a  gift  for 
setting  neat  stitches  and  running  a  machine 
evenly,  and  a  fair  amount  of  good  taste.  You 
think  you  would  like  to  be  a  dressmaker,  but 
you  have  no  capital. 

You  must  start  as  an  apprentice  or  helper, 
according  to  your  age.  If  you  are  a  mere  slip 
of  a  girl,  you  will  start  your  dressmaking  career 
by  running  errands,  delivering  finished  work, 
executing  small  shopping  commissions,  and 
holding  a  box  of  pins  for  the  fitter.  All  of  those 
tasks  hold  possibilities.  Eunning  errands  and 
delivering  work  will  bring  you  in  direct  contact 
with  customers  and  give  to  you  your  first  train- 
ing in  tactful  treatment  of  patrons.  The  shop- 
ping commissions  will  prove  lessons  in  values, 
combinations  of  color,  or  of  fabrics  and  trim- 
mings, and  the  retail  markets.  By  watching  the 
fitter  closely,  the  mere  holder  of  pins  gains  her 
first  idea  of  the  value  of  lines  and  what  consti- 
tutes failure  or  success  in  fitting. 

As  an  errand  girl,  the  apprentice  will  not  re- 
ceive more  than  $2  a  week.  She  may  have  to 
work  several  months  for  nothing.  At  the  end  of 
six  months  she  starts  on  linings  at  $4  a  week. 
When  promoted  to  do  over-sewing  and  finish- 
ing, she  will  receive  $6  for  her  week's  work. 


DRESSMAKING 


Trimmers  on  skirts  or  waists  receive  $12  to 
$14  per  week.  In  cities,  fitters  receive  from 
$15  to  $18.  After  a  few  years  in  the  establish- 
ment of  a  first-class  dressmaker,  if  the  em- 
ployee has  a  little  reserve  fund,  a  list  of  proba- 
ble patrons,  the  gift  of  winning  satisfied  cus- 
tomers and  plenty  of  good  courage,  she  is  ready 
to  open  a  shop  of  her  own. 

The  girl  who  lacks  business  push  and  the 
ability  to  take  the  initiative  and  achieve  on 
original  lines  should  not  attempt  an  independ- 
ent venture.  She  can  always  find  a  position  for 
about  nine  months  out  of  the  year,  perhaps 
more,  at  $15  a  week  in  a  private  dressmaking 
establishment,  or  she  can  enter  ,a  department 
store  as  alteration  fitter  in  the  suit  and  coat 
department. 

So  much  for  the  history  of  the  young  girl. 
Now  for  her  older  sister  or  aunt,  who  is  a  fine 
needlewoman,  but  who  has  no  knowledge  of  cut- 
ting, fitting  or  designing.  She  must  enter  a 
shop  where  the  best  custom  work  is  done  and 
where  her  fine  stitching  will  be  worth  at  least 
a  dollar  a  day  to  her  employer.  This  means 
hand-tucking,  binding,  braiding,  etc.  Then  she 
advances  to  the  work  of  trimming  and  finally 
to  fitting.  She  escapes  only  the  errand-running 
and  shopping,  though  if  she  can  get  a  little  of 
the  latter  to  do,  it  is  good  training  for  her. 

Replying  to  the  many  questions  about  schools, 


DRESSMAKING 


65 


I  would  say  tliat  the  girl  who  has  it  in  her  to 
succeed  will  do  so  whether  she  starts  as  an  ap- 
prentice at  nothing  a  week,  or  spends  her  fa- 
ther's money  at  a  high-priced  school  for  dress- 
makers. The  teachers  in  a  school  are  perhaps 
more  considerate  of  your  feelings,  at  so  much 
per  week,  than  the  forewoman  of  the  shop  who 
is  intrusting  to  your  inexperienced  fingers 
fabrics  purchased  by  her  patrons,  but  the  con- 
sideration paid  for  by  your  father's  money  will 
not  lead  to  any  royal  road  in  dressmaking  lore. 
That  is  either  born  in  you,  a  God-given  talent, 
or  you  acquire  it  by  honest  effort. 

Studying  designing  during  the  slack  season 
is  entirely  different.  A  practical  fitter  or 
would-be  designer  will  find  a  summer  or  evening 
course  in  a  good  art  school  most  helpful. 

It  will  depend  upon  yourself  how  soon  you 
can  learn  the  trade.  Forewomen  tell  me  that 
it  takes  so  many  months  to  perfect  oneself 
on  linings,  on  sleeves,  on  skirts,  on  trimmings, 
but  I  know  that  girls  who  have  the  right  sort 
of  determination  and  who  concentrate  on  their 
work  can  break  every  time-rule  which  fore- 
women have  conceived.  But  when  the  demon 
of  discouragement  takes  possession  of  you,  then 
your  chances  of  emancipation  and  independ- 
ence fades. 

In  selecting  a  shop  in  which  to  work,  choose 
a  small  rather  than  a  large  establishment.  This 


66 


DEESSMAKING 


will  insure  individual  attention,  or  correction, 
you  may  call  it,  and  a  chance  to  work  on  all 
parts  of  a  gown.  In  the  large  shops  you  are 
apt  to  settle  down  as  a  maker  of  sleeves,  or  vests 
or  panels,  some  one  part  of  each  gown  always 
being  turned  over  to  you.  Thus  your  general 
training  is  neglected. 

Now  we  will  say  that  you  have  a  fair  working 
knowledge  of  dressmaking,  fitting  and  design- 
ing. You  want  to  be  an  independent,  not  a 
salaried  worker.  By  this  I  mean  that  either 
you  wish  to  establish  a  house-to-house  clientele 
of  your  own  or  a  shop  with  help  to  execute  your 
orders  and  carry  out  your  designs.  Eight  here 
I  want  to  speak  of  your  health.  Barring  teach- 
ing, I  doubt  if  there  is  another  trade  or  pro- 
fession which  holds  so  many  wrecks,  nervous 
and  physical,  as  dressmaking.  This  condition 
exists  because  the  work  is  confining.  In  the 
busy  season,  dressmakers  do  not  leave  their 
workrooms  for  weeks  at  a  time,  and  then  they 
wonder  why  they  have  headaches,  digestive  dis- 
orders, neuralgia  and  nervous  prostration.  The 
woman  who  means  to  last  in  this  trade  must 
guard  her  health.  A  brisk  walk  night  and  morn- 
ing, proper  ventilation  of  the  workrooms,  regu- 
lar hours  for  meals,  and  relaxation,  downright 
fun  after  working  hours,  will  save  your  reason, 
protect  your  health,  lengthen  your  period  of 


DEESSMAKING 


usefulness  to  your  own  sex,  and  increase  your 
bank  account. 

Do  not  expect  to  defy  every  rule  of  hygiene 
— and  sanitation,  for  many  workrooms  are  un- 
sanitary and  germ-laden- — and  then  achieve  suc- 
cess and  prosperity.  Mix  a  little  common  sense 
with  your  ability  to  build  good  gowns. 

If  you  have  no  capital  with  which  to  open  a 
shop  which  will  appeal  to  wealthy  customers, 
and  you  still  wish  to  be  your  own  mistress  and 
paymaster,  then  you  must  specialize — and  right 
here  I  want  to  picture  some  incidents  from  real 
dressmaking  life  in  which  girls  have  literally 
wrenched  success  from  apparent  failure  by  spe- 
cializing, or  creating  a  demand  for  their 
services. 

In  a  city  of  less  than  thirty  thousand  inhabi- 
tants there  works  a  young  woman  who  calls  her- 
self dressmaker  to  little  people.  She  makes 
garments  of  any  sort  for  children  over  two  and 
under  ten.  She  would  not  make  a  shirt-waist 
for  little  Tommy's  mother, ^nor  a  skirt  for  Baby 
Bess'  grown-up  sister,  because  she  frankly  ad- 
mits that  she  does  not  know  how.  But  she  makes 
the  cutest  little  brown-linen  suits  for  Tommy 
in  which  he  can  play  comfortably  and  yet  look 
well  dressed,  because  they  fit  properly;  and  she 
makes  Baby  Bess  the  cynosure  of  feminine  eyes 
when  she  goes  calling  or  to  church  with  her 
proud  mamma.   Moreover,  she  is  paid  two  dol- 


68 


DEESSMAKINa 


lars  a  day,  and  has  to  fight  for  a  month's  vaca- 
tion during  hot  weather. 

Here  was  a  girl  who  from  childhood  could 
set  neat  stitches  and  was  accurate.  She  started 
to  serve  an  apprenticeship  with  a  dressmaker 
in  her  own  city.  She  saw  girls  break  down 
from  close  confinement  in  a  poorly-ventilated 
workroom.  She  watched  her  employer's  nerves 
quiver  under  the  trials  peculiar  to  dealing  with 
women  customers,  and  the  effort  to  keep  prom- 
ises which  never  should  have  been  made.  The 
girl  decided  that  she  did  not  want  to  be  a  dress- 
maker, yet  she  had  to  earn  her  living. 

She  heard  some  mothers  complaining  of  how 
poorly  ready-to-wear  clothes  •for  children  were 
put  together,  and  how  tiresome  it  was  to  do 
your  own  sewing.  The  girl  saw  her  chance  and 
seized  it.  She  offered  her  services  at  a  dollar  a 
day  as  a  seamstress,  working  on  children's 
clothes  under  the  direction  of  the  mothers  who 
were  glad  to  have  a  neat  assistant.  Then  she 
read  up  on  children's  clothes.  She  bought  pat- 
terns from  various  firms  until  she  found  one 
that  specialized  on  raiment  for  children.  She 
began  to  design  a  little  frock  here,  a  boy's 
blouse  there.  She  studied  as  she  sewed,  and 
gradually  she  could  ask  a  slight  advance  in  her 
wages.  In  time  mothers  found  that  this  girl, 
whom  they  had  trained  and  whose  faculty  for 
absorbing  information  had  been  as  rapid  as  it 


DEESSMAKINa 


69 


has  been  unostentatious,  was  a*  specialist  in 
juvenilQ  raiment. 

Perhaps  some  day  she  will  be  the  proud  pos- 
sessor of  a  large  city  shop,  because  men  of 
money,  and  women,  too,  for  that  matter,  are 
often  willing  to'  back  a*  specialist  of  this  sort. 
Perhaps,  being  a  woman  of  quiet  tastes  and  sim- 
ple habits,  she  may  continue  to  live  contentedly 
on  twelve  dollars  a  week.  But,  best  of  all,  she 
loves  her  work  and  has  steady  nerves,  which 
means  something  to  those  of  us  who  are  wage- 
earners. 

Some  years  ago  there  came  to  New  York  from 
the  Far  West,  from  New  Mexico,  if  I  remember 
correctly,  a  young  woman  who  painted  rather 
well  on  china.  She  opened  a  studio,  but  met 
with  indifferent  sucess.  Finally  a  day  came 
when  she  could  buy  no  more  china  to  paint  and 
fire,  but  that  mattered  very  little,  as  her  stock 
of  finished  wares  was  by  no  means  depleted. 
Still,  her  hands  must  have  something  to-  do,  so 
she  began  to  make  over  her  clothes  and  to  ulti- 
lize  some  discarded  garments  given  to  her  by 
a  well-to-do  patron.  Among  the  latter  was  a 
green  crepe  de  chine  frock,  which  she  cleaned, 
embroidered  in  self-tones,  and  made  into  a  most 
effective  blouse.  The  patron,  calling  at  the 
studio  one  day,  could  hardly  believe  her  eyes 
when  she  was  shown  the  blouse.  If  she  could 
only  find  some  one  who  could  clean,  make  over 


70  PEESSMAKING 

and  utilize  out-of-date  clothes  for  her  in  that 
very  artistic  fashion! 

The  girl  hesitated  a  moment,  then  frankly 
asked  for  a  chance  to  do  the  work,  explaining 
her  financial  condition.  The  one-time  buyer  of 
ceramics  gladly  accepted  her  services  as  a 
renovator,  cleaner  and  general  utility  sewer. 

For  one  whole  year  that  girl  did  nothing  but 
make  old  frocks  into  new  ones.  There  was  noth- 
ing about  cleaning,  turning  and  pressing  that 
she  did  not  master.  But  all  the  time  she  cher- 
ished another  ambition.  At  the  end  of  the  year 
she  entered  the  workroom  of  a  firm  noted  as 
makers  of  women's  shirt-waists  and  blouses. 
She  studied  their  methods,  and  finally  fared 
forth  a  specialist  in  shirt-waist  and  lingerie 
blouses.  To-day  she  has  a  business  so  thriving 
that  she  never  gives  a  thought  to  her  one-time 
ambition  as  a  painter  of  china. 

From  the  West  Indies  came  another  young 
woman  with  rosy  visions  of  learning  dress- 
making and  opening  an  establishment  of  her 
own.  She  found  herself  an  apprentice  in  a  huge 
workroom  surrounded  by  girls  who  had  no  am- 
bition beyond  half-holidays  and  Sunday  at 
Coney  Island.  They  told  her  there  was  no 
chance  to  rise.  If  a  forewoman  saw  you  were 
clever  she  purposely  kept  you  back,  lest  you 
become  her  rival. 

The  girl  could  not  endure  this.   She  needed 


DEESSMAKING 


71 


an  ambition  to  sustain  her,  an  objective  point 
toward  which  she  would  bend  her  endeavors. 
As  soon  as  she  felt  sufficient  confidence,  she  left 
the  shop  and  started  as  house-to-house  seam- 
stress at  one  dollar  per  day.  Sometimes  she 
worked  with  members  of  the  family  who  em- 
ployed her,  sometimes  with  more  competent 
house-to-house  dressmakers,  but  it  did  not  take 
her  long  to  discover  that  the  problem  of  the 
average  family  was  the  gowning  of  the  girl  who 
had  just  reached  the  awkward  age,  the  age  of 
angles  and  of  hysterical  tears  over  dresses  that 
would  not  simulate  curves. 

She  began  to  study  the  possibilities  of  the 
awkward  age.  "What  styles  of  skirts,  blouses, 
girdles  and  fichus  would  soften  those  angles? 
What  fabrics  lent  themselves  bes.t  to  soft  ef- 
fects, and  what  trimmings  should  be  avoided? 
What  changes  could  be  made  in  prevailing  style 
to  secure  becoming  results  for  unhappy  Miss 
Fifteen?  All  these  problems  she  studied  and 
worked  out  with  a  more  than  artistic  eye — the 
enthusiasm  of  the  girl  with  the  one  idea.  To- 
day that  girl  commands  $2.50  per  day.  She 
has  all  she  can  do  in  town  during  the  winter, 
spring  and  fall,  and  her  hot-weather  days  are 
spent  at  a  resort  on  the  New  Jersey  coast,  where 
in  two  wealthy  families  she  makes,  early  fall 
finery  for  growing  girls.  Thus  she  has  her  ex- 
penses paid  to  and  from  the  resort,  her  daily 


DRESSMAKING 


dip  in  the  sea,  her  moonlight  nights  on  the  sand, 
her  afternoon  rest,  when  the  machine  no  longer 
whirrs  and  the  scissors  lie  as  idle  as  their  mis- 
tress. These  privileges  are  hers,  not  because 
she  knows  a  trade,  for  many  of  us  have  a  trade 
and  no  privileges,  but  because  she  has  found 
for  herself  a  special  service.  She  is  doing  some- 
thing that  few,  if  any,  other  women  have 
deemed  worthy  their  attention.  She  has  made 
a  niche  for  herself. 

These  instances  of  successful  effort  have  not 
been  recited  for  your  amusement.  I  hope  they 
have  all  gone  to  prove  that  it  is  not  the  trade, 
but  the  use  to  which  you  put  it,  that  makes  for 
contentment  or  big  financial  returns. 

Perhaps  you  think  from  what  I  have  written 
that  training,  or  serving  an  apprenticeship,  is 
not  necessary,  that  somehow  you  can  escape 
the  monotony  of  preparation ;  but  I  did  not  wish 
to  give  you  this  impression.  In  each  instance 
the  girl  served  a  hard  apprenticeship  either  be- 
fore or  after  entering  business  for  herself.  The 
maker  of  blouses  served  a  long  weary  year  in  a 
waist  factory.  The  builder  of  garments  for 
children  or  of  raiment  for  growing  girls  found- 
ed her  individual  success  on  a  knowledge  of 
cutting  and  sewing  gained  in  the  hard  school 
of  experience. 

What  I  do  want  to  set  forth  in  this  article  is 
that  the  girl  who  thinks  she  has  only  to  follow 


DEESSMAKING 


73 


untliinkiiigly  the  orders  of  her  employer  or 
forewoman,  and  who  does  not  plan  definitely 
and  enthusiastically  for  her  future,  will  remain 
as  long  as  she  lives  either  a  workroom  drudge 
or  a  most  indifferent  dressmaker  to  dissatisfied 
customers. 


CHAPTER  VI 


WORK  IN  LIBRAEIES 

Of  all  fields  in  which  to  sow  her  energies,  the 
well-educated  but  otherwise  untrained  girl  who 
suddenly  faces  the  problem  of  self-support  will 
find  the  modern  library  the  most  promising.  So 
far  the  profession  is  not  overcrowded,  and  the 
good  worker  is  in  demand. 

It  is  a  field  open  alike  to  the  graduate  of  col- 
lege, finishing  school  or  high  school,  but  it  is 
absolutely  closed  to  the  girl  who  barely  man- 
aged to  pull  through  the  graded  schools,  and 
who,  through  either  force  of  circumstances  or 
inclination,  stopped  when  she  acquired  a  rudi- 
mentary knowledge  of  the  English  branches. 
It  is  an  ideal  field  for  the  woman  who  is  intel- 
lectual, yet  lacks  ability  to  express  this  intellec- 
tuality in  literary  form.  It  often  proves  a  most 
profitable  and  pleasant  field  for  the  teacher  of 
methodical  habits,  good  education  and  bookish 
tastes,  who  somehow  lacks  the  gift  of  disciplin- 
ing and  instilling  knowledge  in  the  youthful 
mind. 

But  it  is  not  the  field  for  that  common  type 

74 


WORK  IN  LIBRARIES'  75 


of  girl  who  likes  books,  yet  is  not  a  student,  who 
imagines  that  in  the  library  she  may  familiar- 
ize herself  with  such  books  as  please  her  fancy, 
and  ignore  those  which  do  not  appeal,  and  pic- 
tures herself  exchanging  books  during  the  busy 
hours  and  reading  the  new  novels  when  visitors 
are  few. 

In  the  modern  library  there  are  no  idle  hours, 
no  slack  days.  There  is  always  something  to  be 
done.   There  is  always  more  to  be  learned. 

The  delicate  woman  who  wants  'ladylike  em- 
ployment and  genteel  hours''  should  avoid 
library  work,  but  if  any  girl  is  earnestly  seek- 
ing a  profession  in  which  she  may  rise  by  her 
own  merits  and  through  her  own  industry, 
broaden  her  mental  life  by  constant  association 
with  the  best  in  literature,  and  at  the  same 
time  do  something  for  her  fellow  men,  she  will 
find  such  work  in  the  public  library. 

The  circular  of  information  concerning  the 
training-school  for  children's  librarians,  con- 
ducted in  connection  with  the  Carnegie  Library, 
Pittsburgh,  Pa.,  states: 

^^The  library  of  to-day  does  not  wait  for  the 
people  to  come  to  it;  it  goes  to  them,  carrying 
books  into  schools  and  homes.  A  large  share  of 
this  work  belongs  to  the  children's  librarian, 
whose  function  it  is  to  awaken  an  interest  in 
good  reading  in  as  many  children  as  she  can 
reach.    Her  work  lies  wherever  children  are 


76  WORK  IN  LIBRARIES 

gathered  together — in  the  children's  room  of 
the  library,  in  the  school,  the  playground,  the 
street  and  the  home.  She  must  also  work  with 
organized  philanthropies,  such  as  university 
and  social  settlements.  This  work  should  ap- 
peal to  the  earnest,  broad-minded  young  woman 
who  wishes  to  devote  her  efforts  to  the  moral, 
esthetic,  as  well  as  the  intellectual,  education  of 
children.'' 

And  what  is  true  of  the  children's  librarian, 
to  a  large  extent  is  true  of  the  reference  libra- 
rian who  comes  in  contact  with  the  reading  pub- 
lic. In  stimulating  the  interest  of  all  her  visi- 
tors, in  directing  their  reading  along  broader 
lines,  in  feeding  the  starved  minds  of  those  to 
whom  the  public  opens  for  the  first  time  the 
door  to  literature  and  literary  pleasure,  she  is 
doing  something  more  than  earning  her  salary 
and  serving  the  board  which  appointed  her. 
She  is  uplifting  humanity.  In  so  doing  she  finds 
the  fine,  if  narrow,  path  to  happiness,  and  she 
is  mastering  the  first  principles  of  the  joy  of 
living. 

With  this  broader  view  of  the  librarian's 
duties  and  privileges,  let  us  consider  the  ad- 
vantages and  disadvantages  of  the  work.  This 
summing  up  of  the  arguments  for  and  against 
the  profession  must  not  be  taken  as  the  opinion 
of  a  single  worker,  but  as  the  result  of  much 
investigating,  the  sifting  of  many  opinions. 


WOEK  IN  LIBRARIES  77 


Its  advantages,  except  in  departments  where 
the  work  is  largely  mechanical,  such  as  recov- 
ering books,  pasting  labels,  rnnning  indicators, 
etc.,  are  that  it  keeps  one  in  touch,  more  or  less, 
with  the  intellectual  life  and  progress  of  the 
world;  it  pays  regularly  and  fairly  well;  it 
brings  one  in  contact  with  agreeable  and  often 
gifted  people;  and,  unlike  teaching,  it  is  put 
aside  at  the  day's  end. 

On  the  other  hand,  however,  the  unthinking, 
mechanical  library  worker  can  very  easily  lead 
a  most  superficial  life,  because  her  work  lays 
undue  emphasis  on  the  intellectual  side  of  life. 
Some  librarians  hold,  however^  that  there  really 
is  no  great  goal  in  sight  for  the  very  able  and 
ambitious  girl;  that  is,  she  has  not  the  same 
wide  scope  for  achievement  and  the  develop- 
ment of  her  creative  faculties  as  the  writer,  the 
musician,  the  artist,  the  designer.  She  never 
really  becomes  her  own  mistress,  as  one  suc- 
cessful librarian  expressed  it.  Even  when  she 
is  head  librarian  she  is  ruled  by  the  board  of 
directors.  Expressing  it  broadly,  she  has  less 
chance  to  give  expression  to  her  individuality 
than  girls  in  many  professions,  like  the  arts, 
the  sciences  and  the  law. 

But  taking  the  profession  as  a  whole,  it  is  the 
ideal  one  for  the  girl  who  is  content  with  rou- 
tine work,  a  comfortable  salary  and  the  ability; 


78  WOEK  IN  LIBRAEIES 


to  serve  Her  fellow-men  in  a  capacity  whicli  can 
never  be  termed  mean,  narrow  or  menial.  She 
must  always  feel  the  nplift  of  the  books  among 
which  she  moves,  and  the  call  of  those  who  need 
the  help  of  her  broader  intelligence  and  equip- 
ment. 

All  these  things  the  girl  of  sufficient  educa- 
tion must  consider,  and  then  turn  to  the  ques- 
tion of  preparation. 

The  day  of  haphazard  library  work  is  past. 
The  modern  library,  large  or  small,  is  systema- 
tized like  the  modern  business  establishment. 
The  custom  of  giving  a  position  to  the  mayor's 
niece  when  she  comes  back  from  a  year  at  a 
city  school,  because  she  is  the  mayor's  niece, 
and  dresses  well,  and  has  nice  white  hands,  has 
passed.  The  librarian,  like  the  teacher,  must 
pass  an  examination,  and  for  this  she  must  be 
as  familiar  with  the  high  school  branches  and 
as  closely  in  touch  with  the  current  events  and 
literature  as  the  candidate  for  a  position  in  an 
up-to-date  school. 

Librarians  throughout  the  country  believe  in 
a  training-school.  At  a  recent  examination  for 
applicants  in  connection  with  the  public  library 
system  in  New  York  City,  only  five  per  cent,  of 
the  girls  who  had  been  prepared  at  library 
schools  failed. 

There  are  two  ways  of  preparing  for  these 
examinations.    One  is  in  the  free  training- 


WOEK  IN  LIBRARIES  79 


schools  for  library  workers  maintained  in 
many  large  cities  in  connection  with  their  pub- 
lic library  system.  This  generally  represents 
giving  anywhere  from  nine  to  twelve  months' 
service  to  the  library  in  return  for  training, 
after  which  the  apprentice  must  pass  the  ex- 
amination open  to  all  applicants  for  the  post  of 
assistant  librarian. 

In  New  York  City,  for  instance,  the  public 
library  maintains  a  training-school,  with  silty 
pupils,  in  connection  with  the  Muhlenberg 
Branch  Library  in  West  Twenty-third  Street. 
Two-fifths  of  the  time  the  girls  spend  in  study- 
ing various  branches  of  library  work  along 
theoretical  lines,  and  three-fifths  they  must  give 
to  actual  service  in  the  different  branches,  some- 
times pasting  labels  or  re-covering  books  or 
doing  typewriting — any  service,  in  fact,  asked 
of  them.  Each  apprentice  gives  forty- two  and 
one-half  hours  a  week  to  library  work  and  has 
precisely  the  same  hours  and  routine  as  the  paid 
assistant.  At  the  end  of  the  library  year,  in 
May,  she  takes  her  first  examinations  for  the 
post  of  assistant  librarian.  If  her  first  work  is 
substituting,  she  receives  from  twenty  to  thirty 
dollars  a  month.  With  regular  employment  as 
a  recognized  assistant,  her  salary  is  raised  to 
forty  dollars.  At  the  end  of  two  years  she  takes 
another  examination,  which,  if  successfully 
passed,  will  raise  her  salary  to  fifty  dollars  a 


80  WOEK  IN  LIBEAEIES 


month.  A  year  later  she  takes  her  third  and 
last  examination,  which  will  entitle  her  to  the 
post  of  head  librarian  at  a  salary  ranging  from 
eighty  to  ninety  dollars,  according  to  the  library 
in  which  she  is  placed. 

Girls  who  desire  to  enter  this  training-school 
must  be  between  eighteen  and  thirty-five  years 
of  age;  they  must  have  a  four-year  high-school 
education  or  its  equivalent,  and  a  reading 
knowledge  of  both  French  and  German,  while 
greatly  to  their  advantage  will  be  a  speaking 
knowledge  of  German. 

During  the  time  spent  in  studying  and  work- 
ing in  this  free  training-school  a  girl  must  have 
sufficient  money  for  her  support. 

In  many  of  the  smaller  cities,  and  in  not  a 
few  large  ones,  no  such  training-schools  exist, 
simply  because  the  library  staff,  being  none  too 
large  and  extremely  busy,  time  and  energy  can- 
not be  spared  to  train  uncertain  material.  And 
invariably,  when  you  enter  such  a  training- 
school,  you  must  agree  to  give  the  library  first 
call  on  your  services  when  your  apprenticeship 
is  completed.  In  other  words,  a  girl  from  Mem- 
phis, Tennessee,  could  not  expect  to  come  to 
New  York,  receive  training  free  in  connection 
with  a  New  York  public  library,  and  then  re- 
turn to  Memphis  to  take  a  position.  By  every 
moral  code  she  should  give  the  city  in  which  she 
is  trained  first  opportunity  to  use  her  services, 


WORK  IN  LIBRARIES  81 


for  strange  as  this  may  seem  to  out-of-town 
girls,  it  is  in  the  large  cities  that  the  need  of 
the  trained  librarian  is  felt  most  keenly,  because 
of  the  rapid  growth  in  population  and  in 
library  patronage. 

The  girl  who  wishes  to  prepare  for  work  in 
her  own  town,  and  who  must  go  away  from 
home  to  secure  such  training,  should  communi- 
cate with  the  endowed  training-school  for  libra- 
rians nearest  her  home  town.  As  a  rule  these 
schools  are  so  heavily  endowed  that  the  tuition 
is  nominal,  ranging  from  fifty  to  one  hundred 
dollars  for  the  entire  course. 

For  instance,  at  the  Drexel  Institute,  Phila- 
delphia, Pennsylvania,  which  has  been  heavily 
endowed  by  the  Drexel  family,  the  tuition  for 
the  library  course  of  eight  months  is  only  fifty 
dollars,  with  incidentals  amounting  to  fifteen 
or  twenty  dollars  more.  At  Pratt  Institute, 
Brooklyn,  New  York,  which  has  graduated  a, 
large  number  of  very  successful  librarians,  the 
course  runs  two  school  years,  of  nine  months 
each;  tuition  for  the  first  year,  fifty  dollars;  for 
the  second,  twenty-five  dollars ;  while  thirty  dol- 
lars will  generally  cover  all  charges  for  text- 
books, materials,  etc. 

In  addition  to  this,  a  student  must  pay  her 
own  board  and  living  expenses,  for  which  she 
she  aid  allow  ten  dollars  a  week. 


82  WORK  IN  LIBRARIES 


These  figures  are  presented  merely  to  give  the 
would-be  librarian  a  general  idea  of  what  her 
training  will  cost.  No  school,  however  heavily- 
endowed,  provides  board  and  lodging,  and  as  a 
rule  heads  of  library  schools  prefer  that 
students  should  not  attempt  to  work  their  way 
through  the  course — that  is,  earn  board  and 
lodging  while  studying.  Every  particle  of 
energy  and  every  moment  of  time  are  required 
for  the  work.  The  hours  run  from  nine  to  four, 
five  days  in  the  week,  with  an  hour  for  lunch, 
and  on  Saturdays  there  are  trips  to  other 
libraries,  field  work,  etc. 

There  are  many  library  schools,  including 
Pratt  and  Drexel  institutes,  the  New  York  State 
Library  School  at  Albany,  New  York,  Simmons 
College  Library  School,  Boston,  Massachusetts, 
and  the  school  attached  to  the  University  of 
Illinois. 

As  a  rule  a  high-school  education  of  four 
years  or  its  equivalent,  with  a  reading  knowl- 
edge of  German  and  French,  is  sufficient  prepa- 
ration for  the  examination  held  at  any  of  these 
training  schools,  though  the  New  York  State 
Library  School  demands  some  college  work 
also. 

If  you  have  graduated  several  years  previous 
to  taking  the  examination,  do  not  trust  to  your 
memory,  but  brush  up,  ^^cram''  if  you  will,  as 


WORK  IN  LIBRARIES  83 


you  did  in  tHe  old  sctool  days,  for  the  examina- 
tions for  entrance  to  these  training-schools  are 
by  no  means  simple.  Here,  for  instance,  is  a 
set  of  questions  gleaned  from  a  sample  exami- 
nation sheet,  loaned  by  the  Drexel  Institute, 
Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania : 

1.  Mention  nationality  and  century  and  char- 
acterize briefly  an  important  work  by  ten  of  the 
following:  Le  Sage,  Marlowe,  Tasso,  Ibsen, 
Maurice,  Hewlett,  Balzac,  Sir  Francis  Bacon, 
Montaigne,  Sir  Thomas  Malory,  Lessing, 
Walter  Pater,  Paine,  Swinburne,  Landor, 
James  Bryce. 

2.  State  briefly  what  you  know  about  the  lit- 
erary work  of  the  following:  Sainte-Beuve, 
Turgenieff,  Dante,  Gabriel,  Rosetti,  Heine, 
Thomas  De  Quincy. 

3.  Write  an  account  (about  two  pages)  of  the 
poets  and  poetry  of  England  at  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  and  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth 
centuries. 

4.  Name  five  important  writers  of  ancient 
Greece,  and  specify  in  what  department  each 
is  famous.   Of  ancient  Rome. 

5.  Describe  (only  five  lines  each)  the  char- 
acter of  the  following:  ^^The  Faerie  Queene," 
^^The  Rubaiyat,^'    Idylls  of  the  King.'' 

6.  What  do  you  understand  by  the  following : 
(a)  the  minnesingers;  (b)  the  Cid;  (c)  the 


84  WOEK  IN  LIBRARIES 


morality  plays;  (d)  Beowulf;  (e)  the  hu- 
manists. 

7.  Name  five  of  the  greatest  American  essay- 
ists; characterize  briefly  the  literary  work  of 
each,  and  mention  the  title  of  their  greatest 
works. 

8.  Name  two  famous  allegories ;  three  famous 
histories  of  the  United  States ;  five  great  world 
epics;  two  famous  satires;  five  children's 
classics. 

9.  Write  a  criticism  (about  two  pages)  of  one 
of  the  following:  Thomas  Carlyle,  Victor 
Hugo,  Robert  Browning. 

10.  To  what  extent  has  periodical  literature 
been  a  part  of  your  reading?  Mention  ten 
periodicals  with  which  you  are  most  familiar, 
and  characterize  briefly  one  weekly  and  one 
monthly  periodical. 

Nor  does  this  represent  the  complete  exami- 
nation. There  were  other  tests  in  English  and 
the  languages,  and  none  too  much  time  was  al- 
lowed for  answering  them,  either. 

The  examinations  for  entrance  on  the  open- 
ing of  the  fall  term,  in  September  or  October, 
are  generally  held  some  time  in  June,  and  this 
gives  the  applicant  time  to  brush  up  if  she 
barely  passes. 

Once  in  the  school,  she  finds  that  she  has 
many  branches  to  study,  and  much  to  learn  be- 
sides cataloguing  and  exchanging  books.  A 


WORK  IN  LIBEAEIES  83 


bare  outline  of  one  of  the  briefest  courses  is 
given  herewith : 

ONE  YEAR 

First  Term — Alphabeting;  book  numbers, 
cataloguing,  dictionary  form ;  classification, 
decimal;  current  periodicals;  fiction,  appraisal 
of;  French,  technical;  library  handwriting; 
practice  in  the  library;  reference  work;  survey 
of  the  library  field;  typewriting  (optional). 

Second  Term — ^Accession  work;  binding  and 
rebinding;  book  selection  and  book  buying; 
cataloguing,  classed  form — ^maps,  government 
documents;  children's  department,  work  of; 
classification,  expansive;  current  periodicals; 
fiction,  appraisal  of;  German;  technical;  loan 
system;  order  work;  practice  in  the  library; 
reference  work;  shelf  listing;  subject  headings; 
survey  of  the  library  field;  trade  bibliography; 
typewriting  (optional). 

Third  Term — Bibliography;  field  work;  his- 
tory of  classical  learning;  history  of  libraries; 
indexing ;  library  administration ;  library  build- 
ings; practice  in  the  library;  proofreading; 
stock-taking;  supplies  and  statistics. 

I  have  asked  a  number  of  librarians  whether 
they  advised  specialization  either   in  prepa- 
ration for  examinations  or  in  taking  the  libra- 
rian course  after  admission  to  the  school. 
.    For  preparation,  librarians,  male  or  female, 


86  WORK  IN  LIBRARIES 


advised  a  broad,  general  education,  a  college 
education  if  possible,  as  unquestionably  the  col- 
lege graduate  or  the  girl  with  a  degree  is  given 
the  preference  in  an  up-to-date  library. 

In  regard  to  the  work  after  graduation,  each 
woman  becomes  a  law  unto  herself,  for  she  is 
bound  to  find  her  level  or  the  special  library 
work  that  appeals  to  her  after  she  has  studied 
and  worked  a  short  time.  The^woman  who  de- 
sires to  become  head  librarian  in  a  small  city 
should  not  specialize,  but  interest  herself  in  all 
branches  of  library  work.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  girl  who  leans  toward  charity,  settlement  or 
sociological  work,  should  specialize  on  the  work 
of  the  children's  library.  The  student  of  lan- 
guages will  find  her  best  field  in  the  reference 
department. 


CHAPTER  VII 


DUTIES  OF  THE  COMPANION,  SECRETAEY  AND 
GOVEENESS 

Ten  or  twenty  years  ago,  when  a  woman  of 
family  and  refinement  met  with  financial  re- 
verses, her  relatives  either  arranged  a  desira- 
ble match  for  her,  or  secured  for  her  the  very 
genteel  post  of  companion to  a  woman  of 
wealth  and  generally  uncertain  temper.  The 
duties  of  the  companion'^  were  indefinite  and 
her  income  was  uncertain.  She  was  in  favor 
one  day  and  out  the  next.  She  was  socially  su- 
perior to  the  servants  in  the  household,  yet  she 
did  not  share  their  spirit  of  independence.  She 
generally  drooped  until  she  became  a  pitiable, 
dun-colored  figure,  with  a  ^'what's-the-use'^  ex- 
pression in  her  tired  eyes. 

Even  to-day,  girls  and  women  of  mature 
years,  gentle  breeding  and  good  education,  but 
with  no  special  training  for  the  ungentle  task 
of  earning  their  own  living,  when  face  to  face 
with  the  problem  of  self-support  turn,  panic- 
stricken,  to  this  old-fashioned  profession,  in 

87 


88      DUTIES  OF  THE  COMPANION 


which,  some  shadow-like  great-aunt  ended  her 
days. 

^^I  have  all  sorts  of  social  connections/'  such 
a  woman  will  write.  ^^I  have  a  good  English 
education,  some  knowledge  of  French  and 
music,  and  I  paint  rather  well  on  china.  I 
think  I  would  do  very  well  as  a  companion,  or 
social  secretary,  or  governess,  or  anything  of 
that  sort.  I  am  very  patient  and  sympathetic.'' 

This  quotation  from  a  real  letter  shows  just 
what  vague  ideas  inexperienced  women  hold  re- 
garding the  posts  of  companion,  social  secre- 
tary and  governess,  which  are  hopelessly  con- 
fused in  the  average  feminine  mind.  The  old- 
fashioned  companion"  who  had  no  assured 
position  in  the  household,  who  was  a  dependent 
rather  than  a  useful  or  desired  factor  in  the 
family  circle,  has  given  place  to  a  figure  of 
energy  and  well-defined  duties.  The  work  of 
the  companion"  is  now  that  of  the  trained  or 
semi-trained  attendant.  The  social  secretary 
to  the  woman  of  fashion  is  as  important  a  figure 
in  Madam  Newly-Eich's  household  as  her  im- 
ported English  butler.  The  private  secretary 
to  the  woman  of  money  and  affairs  has  as  clear- 
ly a  defined  standing  in  the  household  as  the 
private  secretsiry  to  the  woman's  husband  in  a 
corporation  office.  The  invalid  requires  not  a 
low-voiced,  gentle-mannered  girl  who  can  read 
aloud  and  take  odd  stitches  for  her  employer, 


DUTIES  OF  THE  COMPANION  89 


but  a  semi-trained  nurse  who  is  competent  to 
meet  any  and  every  emergency.  The  family 
traveling  abroad  or  living  on  a  country  estate 
employs  a  governess  who  could  fill  the  post  of 
teacher  in  a  fashionable  preparatory  school  and 
whose  position  combines  the  duties  of  peda- 
gogue and  chaperon. 

The  general,  and,  alas,  often  incompetent 
companion"  has  no  place  in  the  present-day 
organization  of  households.  Her  refinement, 
her  social  connections,  her  patience  and  sym- 
pathy, ' '  must  be  backed  by  special  training  for 
the  work. 

A  pathetically  large  number  of  women  in 
small  inland  cities  and  even  towns  imagine  that 
they  could  succeed  as  social  secretaries  to  new- 
ly-rich women  or  to  social  leaders  who  find  their 
correspondence  and  charities  a  burden  so  griev- 
ous as  to  demand  an  assistant.  Because  these 
women  know  how  to  write  graceful  notes  of  in- 
vitation, acknowledgment,  congratulation  or 
condolence,  how  to  receive  guests,  and  how  to 
pour  tea  in  their  own  little  parlors,  they  imagine 
that  they  could  train  the  newly-rich  woman  in 
the  social  way  she  should  go,  or  lift  the  corre- 
spondence burden  from  the  shoulders  of  Miss 
Helen  Gould  or  Mrs.  Eussell  Sage. 

In  reality,  only  the  woman  of  extraordinary 
executive  ability  and  experience  can  fill  either 
position.     Social  secretaries  are  born,  not 


90      DUTIES  OF  THE  COMPANION 


trained.  Those  generally  chosen  for  the  post 
are  women  of  family  and  social  position,  who 
have  met  with  financial  reverses,  and  whose 
chief  asset  is  not  their  ability  to  indite  a  grace- 
ful note,  but  to  place  at  the  command  of  their 
employer  their  own  social  acquaintance,  which 
is  invaluable  to  the  newcomer.  The  employer 
already  established  socially  has  for  her  secre- 
tary a  young  woman  who  is  one  of  her  house- 
hold staff,  or  who  calls  daily  to  answer  corre- 
spondence, send  out  invitations  or  perform 
other  clerical  duties.  But  if  the  employer  is 
newly  arrived  on  the  social  horizon,  she  selects 
as  her  secretary  one  of  the  women  reared  in 
luxury  and  social  favor,  who  has  been  suddenly 
deprived  of  financial  revenue. 

This  sort  of  secretary  must  have  the  names 
of  desirable  people  at  her  finger-tips.  She  must 
be  able  to  tell  her  employer  who  is  worth  meet- 
ing and  who  should  be  avoided,  and  she  must 
bring  her  own  social  connections  to  bear  in  fur- 
thering the  interests  of  her  ambitious  client. 
She  must  know  how  to  arrange  entertainments 
for  her  employer,  and  how  to  bring  the  right 
people  to  Mrs.  Newly-Eich's  house.  She  is  so- 
cial sponsor  rather  than  secretary,  a  human 
compendium  of  smart  etiquette  and  good  form, 
an  advisory  board  in  the  question  of  gowns  and 
house  furnishings.  In  fact,  she  is  to  the  social 
climber  what  the  campaign  manager  is  to  the 


DUTIES  OF  THE  COMPANION 


presidential  candidate.  She  keeps  her  from 
doing  the  wrong  things. 

Can  you  picture  the  diplomacy,  the  social 
training,  the  experience  necessary  to  perform 
these  complicated  duties?  In  your  heart,  do 
you  believe  you  could  perform  them?  If  so,  fill 
your  trunk  with  pretty  clothes,  your  bag  with 
letters  of  introduction  to  influential  men  and 
women,  and  be  prepared  to  work  like  a  diplomat 
for  a  foothold  in  the  fashionable  world.  You 
must  gain  this  before  you  can  apply  for  a  post 
as  social  secretary.  You  will  have  more  things 
to  do  than  arrange  invitation  lists.  If  you  do 
not  believe  this,  read  Edith  Wharton's  won- 
derful story  of  fashionable  life,  ''The  House  of 
Mirth. 

A  young  woman  who  thought  that  she  would 
like  to  be  private  secretary  to  a  club-woman, 
urged  as  one  of  her  qualifications  the  fact  that 
she  could  write  excellent  literary  papers.  She 
was  greatly  surprised  when  she  learned  that 
she  must  have  a  knowledge  of  stenography  be- 
fore she  could  apply  for  such  a  position,  so 
heavy  is  the  correspondence  of  a  club-woman 
of  state  or  national  fame. 

But  she  was  not  dismayed,  for  she  was  a  girl 
with  ''the  one  idea'' — to  become  a  private  sec- 
retary. She  is  in  New  York  to-day,  almost  at 
the  end  of  her  course  in  shorthand  and  type- 
writing.  In  the  meantime  she  has  joined  sev- 


92      DUTIES  OF  THE  COMPANION 


eral  active  clubs,  and  has  lived  at  an  apart- 
ment house  in  whose  parlors  many  women's  or- 
ganizations meet.  Moreover,  she  has  learned 
how  to  dress  in  a  fashion  suitable  to  the  secre- 
tary of  a  woman  of  affairs.  She  has  laid  aside 
the  somewhat  gay,  if  girlish,  finery  she  brought 
to  New  York,  and  has  achieved  the  tailor-made 
air  and  the  good  grooming  which  stamp  her  as 
a  successful  business  girl,  even  before  she  has 
a  position.  After  preparing  for  the  work  in 
so  thorough  and  systematic  a  way,  I  believe  that 
her  first  position  will  be  one  that  many  a  more 
experienced  girl  might  envy. 

Incidentally,  clothes  and  bearing  count  tre- 
mendously if  you  desire  to  be  on  the  staff  of 
well-to-do  employers.  The  day  of  the  shrink- 
ing, shabby,  self-effacing  companion  is  past. 
The  capable  woman  has  arrived — even  in  the 
role  of  companion. 

The  girl  who  desires  a  position  as  compan- 
ion or  attendant  to  a  semi-invalid  must  prepare 
for  this  work  also.  At  any  registry  for  trained 
nurses  they  will  tell  you  that  the  custom  of  em- 
ploying training-school  graduates  as  traveling 
companions  is  growing.  This  does  not  mean 
that  you  must  take  a  full  course  to  secure  any 
such  position,  but  you  should  have  had  some 
experience  in  nursing,  and  if  you  have  not  had 
this  you  can  take  an  abridged  course  in  nursing, 
such  as  the  Young  Women 's  Christian  Associa- 


DUTIES  OF  THE  COMPANION  93 


tion  offers  in  large  cities,  and  which  will  fit  you 
for  any  emergencies  which  may  arise  during 
the  journey  with  a  delicate  employer.  Your 
certificate  from  such  a  school,  letters  of  intro- 
duction to  physicians,  good  health,  cheerfulness, 
steady  nerves  and  a  talent  for  minimizing  dis- 
comforts of  travel  will  insure  your  success  in 
this  work. 

On  board  a  steamship  bound  for  the  Mediter- 
ranean, my  table  companion  was  a  wealthy  New 
York  woman  who  was  really  quite  well  and 
strong,  but  who  believed  that  she  was  traveling 
for  her  health.  The  chair  on  her  right  had  been 
vacant  during  the  entire  voyage,  and  just  be- 
fore landing  she  explained  the  situation: 

^^My  traveling  companion  has  just  gone  on 
deck  for  the  first  time  since  we  passed  Sandy 
Hook.  I  engaged  her  to  wait  upon  me,  and  she 
has  not  raised  her  head  from  her  pillow  until 
to-day.  When  I  think  of  what  I  shall  have  to 
.tip  our  stewardess!  But,  you  see,  she  never 
crossed  before,  and  did  not  understand  that  the 
longer  she  remained  in  her  berth  the  sicker  she 
would  become.  In  Naples  I  shall  give  her  a 
month's  salary  and  a  ticket  home.  I  cannot  be 
bothered  with  her  any  longer.  I  shall  be  turn- 
ing nurse  myself  next.  And  it  serves  me  right 
for  giving  the  position  to  a  girl  who  needed 
money,  rather  than  to  an  experienced  com- 
panion,  I  might  have  known  that  a  girl  with. 


94      DUTIES  OF  THE  COMPANION 


those  beseeching  eyes  and  a  dimple  in  her  chin 
would  be  no  earthly  use  to  me. ' ' 

If  you  want  to  be  a  traveling  companion  you 
must  first  learn  how  to  travel,  how  to  handle 
tickets  and  baggage,  how  to  lift  all  responsi- 
bilities from  your  fussy,  fretful  patron,  how  to 
keep  yourself  and  your  charge  fresh-looking 
and  well  groomed  on  boat  or  train,  how  to  han- 
dle the  inevitable  laundry  problem,  how  to  pro- 
tect your  employer  from  the  extortions  of  hack- 
men  and  porters.  In  fact,  you  are  trouble- 
bearer-in-extraordinary. 

The  girl  who  has  traveled  and  thoroughly  en- 
joys it,  who  has  some  knowledge  of  nursing  or 
attendance  upon  the  sick,  should  try  to  reach 
patrons  through  physicians.  If  her  acquaint- 
ance will  not  warrant  this,  there  are  agencies 
where  she  may  register,  and  many  openings 
come  through  the  ^^want  ad.'^  columns  of  city 
papers. 

A  beautiful  if  somewhat  trying  work  is  done 
by  a  number  of  young  women,  trained  as  de- 
scribed above,  in  families  of  the  rich,  where  an 
unfortunate  daughter  must  be  screened  from 
curious  eyes.  If  you  are  not  afraid  of  epileptic 
patients  or  of  one  sutfering  from  some  mild 
mental  derangement,  you  can  find  work  of  this 
sort  which  pays  well  and  insures  a  life  of  com- 
parative ease.  Very  often  these  unhappy 
daughters  of  the  very  rich  are  kept,  with  their 


DUTIES  OF  THE  COMPANION  95 


attendants,  on  country  estates.  Sometimes,  if 
the  mental  defect  is  very  slight,  they  are  per- 
mitted to  travel.  With  many  the  attacks  are 
periodic,  and  during  the  interim  these  poor 
girls  are  pleasant  company. 

For  the  companion  who  does  her  duty  by  such 
a  patient,  the  reward  is  generous,  and  the  family 
shows  its  appreciation  in  a  most  practical  man- 
ner, while  the  devotion  and  appreciation  of  the 
patient  is  in  itself  a  beautiful  recompense. 

And  now  for  the  many  teachers  who  desire 
positions  in  families  going  abroad  for  a  pro- 
tracted tour.  The  woman  who  has  only  a  high- 
school  education  has  little  or  no  chance  to  se- 
cure such  a  post.  If  the  trip  is  for  a  year  or 
more,  the  education  of  the  children  goes  on  pre- 
cisely as  if  they  were  at  home  with  a  visiting  or 
resident  governess.  That  is^  during  certain 
hours  of  each  day  regular  lessons  are  given, 
and  the  studies  are  those  offered  in  fashionable 
private  schools.  A  knowledge  of  French  and 
German  is  almost  essential.  If  there  are  boys 
in  the  party,  Latin  and  Greek  must  be  taught. 
Drawing  and  music  may  be  included  in  the 
course  of  instruction,  and,  more  than  this,  the 
traveling  governess  assumes  almost  entire  re- 
sponsibility for  the  children  during  the  trip,  un- 
less a  maid  is  also  carried.  She  is  chaperon  to 
the  girls  on  board  ship,  and  their  companion 
during  all  sight-seeing  trips,  for  which  reason 


96      DUTIES  OF  THE  COMPANION 


she  must  be  well  posted  on  history,  art  and  liter- 
ature. College  girls  who  have  traveled  abroad, 
or  governesses  who  have  already  had  experience 
in  this  country,  are  generally  given  the  prefer- 
ence. 

The  scale  of  salaries  is  a  sliding  one,  gov- 
erned largely  by  the  personality  of  the  appli- 
cant and  the  liberality  and  good  humor  of  the 
employer. 

Twenty-five  to  thirty-five  dollars  a  month 
with  all  expenses  paid,  is  considered  liberal  re- 
muneration for  a  governess  traveling  abroad 
with  two  or  three  young  charges.  Trained  nurses 
receive  the  regulation  wages,  twenty  to  twenty- 
five  dollars  a  week  if  traveling  with  a  patient 
who  is  really  ill  and  requires  much  attention. 
For  chronic  or  light  cases,  where  the  duties  are 
almost  nominal,  some  nurses  will  accept  as  low 
as  ten  dollars  per  week  if  a  pleasant  trip  is  in 
prospect.  These  are  graduate  nurses,  you  un- 
derstand. A  trained  attendant  and  companion, 
such  as  I  described  further  back  in  this  chapter, 
may  receive  anything  from  ten  dollars  per 
month  to  ten  dollars  per  week,  with  all  expenses, 
and  this  payment  is  measured  by  the  fancy 
which  the  captious  invalid  takes  to  her  few- 
found  protege. 

Here  is  a  case  in  point :  A  whimsical  old  lady 
spent  several  months  at  a  New  York  hotel,  and 
there  took  a  fancy  to  a  hard-working  stenogra- 


DUTIES  OF  THE  COMPANION  97 


pher  employed  in  the  office.  She  invited  the  girl 
to  go  to  Europe  with  her,  and  off  they  started 
in  the  most  unbusinesslike  fashion.  There  was 
no  understanding  about  wages,  but  the  girl  was 
to  have  everything  she  needed  for  the  trip  at  the 
hands  of  her  newly-acquired  godmother.  It  was 
all  very  lovely  until  they  struck  rough  weather 
half  way  across  the  Atlantic,  and  the  girl  suc- 
cumbed to  mal  de  mer.  The  old  lady  regarded 
this  unfortunate  circumstance  as  a  personal  af- 
front, and  directly  they  reached  London  she  in- 
formed the  young  woman  that  she  might  have 
a  return  ticket  and  take  herself  off.  And  that 
is  precisely  what  the  poor  girl  did.  Terrified 
to  find  herself  in  the  metropolis  of  the  world, 
without  friends  or  influence,  she  came  home  on 
the  very  next  steamer,  with  just  enough  money 
of  her  own  left  to  pay  for  her  steamer  chair  and 
to  tip  her  stewards.  She  was  glad  to  get  back 
to  a  typewriter  and  a  small  but  regular  salary. 

Social  secretaries  receive  large  salaries,  but 
spend  a  great  deal  on  dress.  On  the  other  hand, 
they  receive  many  beautiful  and  valuable  gifts 
from  clients.  Private  secretaries  to  women  of 
affairs  receive  about  the  same  salary  as  office 
girls,  but  have  more  pleasant  surroundings  and 
often  less  strenuous  work. 

Thoughtful  and  ambitious  girls  reading  this 
chapter  may  think  that  the  position  of  gover- 
ness or  companion  or  secretary  does  not  open 


98      DUTIES  OF  THE  COMPANION 


np  a  career  or  promise  any  brilliant  future. 
That  depends  entirely  upon  the  girl  herself.  The 
position  of  governess  in  a  family  of  wealth  and 
influence,  or  as  a  companion  to  a  rich  invalid,  or 
as  secretary  to  a  woman  of  affairs,  will  bring 
you  in  contact  with  men  and  women  who  can 
offer  you  better  positions.  If  you  have  the  true 
business  instinct,  it  will  develop,  even  if  you 
are  merely  a  companion  or  governess.  You  will 
meet  successful  people,  and  in  that  atmosphere 
you  will  learn  how  to  carve  success  for  yourself 
with  tools  vastly  different  from  those  which  you 
picked  up  when  you  first  took  the  position.  At 
best  the  post  of  companion  is  merely  a  make- 
shift, and  as  one  agent  remarked,  it  is  more 
apt  to  lead  to  the  matrimonial  market  than  to 
any  commercial  career. 

Akin  to  the  post  of  chaperon  for  young  girls 
traveling  abroad  is  that  of  chaperon  in  a  pri- 
vate school.  A  few  of  the  fashionable  finishing 
schools  located  near  large  cities  offer  openings 
of  this  sort,  and  women  of  social  standing, 
charming  manners  and  good  judgment  are  eligi- 
ble applicants.  The  salary  is  just  large  enough 
to  pay  one's  bills  for  gowns  and  hats,  but  board 
and  lodging  and  laundry  are  included,  while  all 
incidental  expenses,  carfares,  tickets,  etc.,  are 
paid  by  the  pupils  chaperoned.  The  work  of  the 
chaperon  includes  escorting  young  girls  to 
theaters,  concerts,  lectures  and  shopping  trips 


DUTIES  OF  THE  COMPANION  99 


to  town,  also  to  any  private  function,  such  as 
receptions,  dances  or  musicales  to  which  par- 
ties of  pupils  may  be  invited.  In  some  schools 
these  tasks  are  relegated  to  teachers  and  no  chap- 
eron is  employed,  but  the  custom  is  growing. 
Such  positions  appeal  particularly  to  the  widow 
left  with  a  small  income  and  perhaps  a  daughter 
whom  she  desires  to  educate  in  such  a  school. 

One  widow,  with  her  daughter,  is  located  in 
a  mid- West  church  school,  and  in  addition  to 
her  work  as  chaperon  she  makes  exquisite  lin- 
gerie of  batiste  and  handkerchief  linen,  which 
she^sells  to  wealthy  pupils. 

In  large  cities  like  New  York,  Chicago  and 
Washington,  women  have  taken  to  the  work  of 
guiding  sight-seers,  and  a  well-balanced,  pleas- 
ant-mannered and  well-posted  young  woman 
can  do  very  well  at  such  work.  Of  course,  she 
acts  as  escort  for  parties  of  women  only  or 
parties  made  up  of  both  sexes,  never  parties  of 
men.  She  must  arrange  sight-seeing  tours 
which  occupy  various  periods  of  time,  register 
at  hotels  and  agencies,  and  be  able  not  only  to 
point  out  points  of  historical  interest,  but  she 
must  know  about  all  desirable  shops,  from  art 
to  manicuring.  A  young  woman  who  can  plan 
attractive  trips  for  sight-seers  will  soon  find 
favor  with  hotel  clerks,  who  are  glad  to  recom- 
mend any  one  capable  of  making  the  city  and 
its  sights  attractive  to  visitors. 


CHAPTER  yill 


MILLINEEY 

To  THE  girl  tHrown  suddenly  upon  her  own 
resources  and  forced  to  earn  her  living,  not  in 
a  few  months  or  weeks,  but  to-morrow,  milli- 
nery offers  no  practical  inducements.  Neither 
is  it  the  trade  to  be  chosen  by  the  girl  who  in- 
tends to  remain  in  business  just  long  enough  to 
earn  a  trousseau  or  to  support  herself  until  her 
fiance  is  financially  able  to  marry. 

It  does  not  yield  quick  returns.  Its  appren- 
ticeship is  so  ill-paid  that  it  does  not  insure  even 
the  shelter  of  a  working-girrs  home.  And  there 
is  no  royal  road  to  millinery  success. 

On  the  other  hand,  perhaps  no  trade,  distinct- 
ly feminine,  promises  more  certain,  more  last- 
ing rewards  to  the  ambitious  girl  with  the  true 
business  instinct.  Once  thoroughly  mastered, 
it  places  her  in  a  position  of  absolute  independ- 
ence. She  does  not  have  to  seek  work.  Posi- 
tions and  employers  seek  her.  It  is,  therefore, 
worthy  the  consideration  of  the  deft-fingered 
girl  whose  ambitions  are  commercial  rather 
than  matrimonial. 

100 


MILLINERY 


101 


Openings  are  to  be  found  in  both  the  retail 
and  the  wholesale  establishments.  In  the  large 
cities,  each  branch  of  the  trade  has  two  distinct 
seasons.  The  spring  retail  season  in  the  work- 
rooms runs  from  February  1st  to  May  30th. 
The  fall  season  in  the  retail  shop  runs  from  Au- 
gust 15th  to  November  1st.  In  the  wholesale 
establishments  the  spring  trade  lasts  from 
January  1st  to  March  15th,  the  fall  trade  from 
July  1st  to  September  30th. 

The  girl  who  would  succeed  in  millinery  must 
have  deft  fingers,  a  genius  for  combining  colors, 
ambition,  energy  and  a  tremendous  capacity  for 
hard  work.  Before  her  rise  five  uncomprising 
steps  which  lead  to  the  capstone  of  efficiency 
and  the  coveted  position  of  buyer. 

Having  decided  that  she  has  the  natural  abili- 
ty  and  the  persistency  to  learn  the  trade,  she 
will  apply  to  the  owner  or  forewoman  of  a  milli- 
nery establishment  just  before  the  season  opens, 
which  means  in  the  retail  field  about  the  first 
of  February  or  the  middle  of  August.  If  she 
has  traded  regularly  at  a  certain  store,  and  if 
her  family  has  a  personal  friend  employed  in  a 
millinery  workroom,  an  introduction  through 
such  a  medium  is  invaluable.  If  she  is  accepted 
as  a  learner  or  apprentice,  she  will  spend  the 
first  season  making  bandeaux,  the  bands  tacked 
under  the  crowns  and  brims  of  hats  to  give  them 
the  correct  tilt  or  raised  effect.  Day  in  and  day 


MILLINERY 


out,  she  will  sew  wire  and  canvas  together.  For 
this  she  will  receive  $1.50  per  week,  unless  it  is 
a  small  shop  and  she  is  willing  to  sweep  and 
dust  out,  in  which  case  she  will  be  paid  $3  per 
week.  If  she  is  particularly  apt,  at  the  end  of 
the  season  she  may  be  promised  promotion  to 
the  post  of  improver.  If  she  has  not  made  a 
good  record,  she  must  return  for  a  second  sea- 
son as  an  apprentice,  and  make  more  bandeaux 
for  another  three  months. 

As  an  improver,  she  makes  frames  and  shirs 
maline,  chitf on,  lace,  velvet  and  other  fabrics  for 
hat  foundations  at  a  salary  varying  from  $5  to 
$8  per  week.  These  two  steps  usually  absorb 
at  least  a  year  and  a  half  of  her  training. 

The  third  step  is  the  post  of  preparer  or  milli- 
ner. Outsiders  call  any  woman  engaged  in  the 
business  a  milliner.  To  the  trade,  the  preparer 
or  milliner  is  the  worker  who  makes  the  hat, 
covers  it,  sorts  out  the  trimmings  suggested, 
and  prepares  everything  as  ordered  by  the 
woman  above  her — the  trimmer.  Her  salary 
during  this  period  varies  from  $8  to  $15.  With 
her  next  step  upward,  her  dependance  upon 
other  women  ceases.  From  this  time  on  she 
rises  or  falls  through  her  own  ability  or  in- 
efficiency. 

The  fourth  step  is  the  position  of  copyist. 
Here  her  work  consists  of  reproducing  import- 
ed models,  and  if  she  is  accurate  in  her  imita- 


,  MILLINERY  103 

\ 

tions  and  is  able  to  give  the  copy  the  ^^air''  of 
the  model  hat,  she  will  command  from  $15  to 
$25  per  week,  according  to  the  size  of  the  shop 
and  city  in  which  she  works. 

Step  number  five  makes  her  the  autocrat  of 
the  shop — the  trimmer.  Now  she  originates  her 
own  designs  and  commands  as  high  as  $75  a 
week.  The  woman  who  reaches  this  point  is  in 
line  for  the  position  of  buyer,  which,  with  many 
establishments,  represents  semi-annual  trips  to 
Paris.  The  girl  who  combines  with  her  prac- 
tical knowledge  of  the  trade  a  natural  commer- 
cial instinct,  or  the  knowledge  of  what  to  buy 
and  how  much,  can  name  her  own  salary. 

This  sort  of  woman  seldom  has  difficulty  in 
securing  financial  backing,  if  she  desires  to  open 
a  shop  of  her  own.  In  fact,  there  is  no  limit 
to  the  commercial  possibilities  which  her  trade 
opens  up.  But  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that 
fully  five  years  of  patient,  conscientious  work, 
together  with  intelligent  observation  and  strict 
attention  to  the  commercial  end  of  the  trade  or 
merchandising  are  required  to  place  a  woman  in 
this  independent  and  assured  position. 

^^Is  there  no  way  by  which  I  can  escape  this 
irksome  apprenticeship?  Are  there  no  schools 
where  millinery  is  taught  ? ' ' 

These  question  come  from  every  point  of  the 
compass,  for  the  average  American  girl  has  be- 
gun to  believe  that  anything  and  everything  can 


104 


MILLINEEY 


be  learned  in  one  trade  school  or  another,  and 
thus  save  her  the  period  of  humble  service 
through  which  her  aunts  and  great-aunts 
passed. 

In  reply  I  can  only  say  that  the  apprentice- 
ship cannot  be  escaped.  Millinery  cannot  be 
learned  from  books.  Its  theory  can  be  present- 
ed by  means  of  charts  and  blackboard  draw- 
ings, but  the  finger — your  fingers — ^must  be 
come  familiar  with,  and  deft  at,  the  various 
forms  of  stitchery.  Familiarity  and  deftness 
come  with  practice,  not  with  the  study  of  theory. 
If  the  reader  thinks  she  would  like  to  become  a 
milliner,  provided  she  did  not  have  to  serve 
three  or  six  months  making  bandeaux,  then  let 
her  enter  a  trade  high  school,  or  elect  the  do- 
mestic arts  course  in  her  last  years  at  school, 
and  get  what  theoretical  and  practical  training 
the  public  schools  offer.  Then  when  she  enters 
the  millinery  shop — and  enter  it  by  the  learners ' 
door  she  certainly  must — she«may  know  how  to 
make  bandeaux,  and,  if  she  proves  this  to  the 
milliner  and  trimmer,  she  will  soon  be  in- 
trusted with  a  better  grade  of  work. 

But  if  the  reader  has  any  idea  that  she  can 
take  a  ^*get-the-salary-quick"  course  at  a  pri- 
vate school  which  offers  to  teach  millinery  in 
three  to  six  months  at  a  tuition  fee  varying 
from  $15  to  $50,  and  immediately  secure  a 
position  as  trimmer  in  a  good  shop,  she  is 


MILLINERY 


105 


making  a  grave  mistake.  In  any  schoolroom, 
where  an  hour  a  day  or  perhaps  a  few  hours 
each  day  are  given  to  work  on  material  pro- 
vided by  the  pupil,  to  be  made  into  a  hat  for 
her  own  wear,  the  training  cannot  be  so  thor- 
ough as  where  the  worker  spends  eight  hours  a 
day  with  her  needle,  working  on  materials  for 
which  an  employer  pays  and  which  she  must 
neither  waste  nor  spoiL  Moreover,  the  teacher 
in  a  private  class  does  not  like  to  otfend  the 
student  who  is  paying  for  tuition,  and  who  may 
recommend  the  school  to  other  pupils,  so  she 
kindly  but  injudiciously  overlooks  careless 
stitchery,  slovenly  work,  and  inefficient  meth- 
ods, and  thus  the  student-worker  acquires  hab- 
its which  no  forewoman  in  a  good  shop  would 
tolerate. 

One  of  the  most  famous  endowed  schools  for 
the  technical  training  of  women  makes  this 
announcement  in  its  year  book:  ^'Millinery 
Course.  Five  days  a  week — three  months.  Ap- 
plicants should  be  sixteen  years  of  age,  at  least, 
and  must  be  able  to  do  simple  sewing.  The 
student  provides  her  own  materials  for  class- 
room work,  and  is  recommended  to  have  on 
hand  old  materials  which  may  be  renovated  and 
used  in  making  and  trimming  hats.  A  course 
in  simple  business  methods  is  given  on  one  aft- 
ernoon each  week.  Two  afternoons  are  devoted 
to  drawing  hats,  that  ability  may  be  gained  in 


106 


MILLINEEY 


sketching  hats  at  exhibitions  or  openings. 
Students  who  are  good  workers  and  desire  posi- 
tions after  completing  this  course  are  recom- 
mended to  wholesale  and  retail  houses  in  the 
city. 

Course  of  Study — Designing,  drafting  and 
making  of  buckram  and  wire  frames.  Study  of 
form,  color  and  textiles.  Making  plain  covered 
hats  with  different  finishing  for  brims.  Making 
bows.  Covering  wire  frames  with  straw  braids 
and  other  materials.  Making  children's  hats. 
Designing,  making  and  trimming  of  all  styles 
of  hats,  according  to  the  season.  Practice  in 
pencil  sketching  of  bows  and  simple  hats.  Time 
and  memory  sketches.  The  study  of  textiles  as 
related  to  different  types. 

^'Tuition  fee — $25  for  three  months. 

This  little  announcement,  more  clearly  than 
any  argument  I  might  prepare,  demonstrates 
the  impossibility  of  cramming  a  millinery  ap- 
prenticeship into  three  months  of  school  work. 
And  in  justice  to  these  recognized  trade  schools, 
it  must  be  said  that  the}^  do  not  deceive  pupils 
by  promising  high-salaried  positions,  nor  do 
they  pretend  to  save  a  pupil  the  irksome  months 
as  an  apprentice.  AVhen  a  girl  talks  with  the 
head  of  such  a  training-school,  she  soon  learns 
that  an  abbreviated  course  of  this  sort,  in  con- 
nection with  other  branches  of  the  domestic  or 
household  arts,  aims  to  develop  the  all-round, 


MILLINERY 


107 


capable  home  woman,  the  woman  who  can  ad- 
minister her  household  economically,  make  her 
own  simple  clothes,  and  trim  her  own  hats.  The 
trade  schools  which  promise  to  turn  out  compe- 
tent trade  workers  or  self-supporting  gradu- 
ates offer  a  two  or  three-year  course,  and  the 
girl  who  elects  this  course  serves  as  gradual 
and  thorough  an  apprenticeship  as  she  would 
in  a  shop. 

Eetailers  and  wholesalers  who  employ  many 
girls  tell  me  that  occasionally  a  girl  who  has 
taken  a  short  course  in  millinery  makes  a  phe- 
nomenal record  in  the  workroom,  but  she  would 
do  the  same  thing  had  she  entered  the  room  as 
an  apprentice  without  training,  because  she  is 
a  bom  milliner  and  business  woman  combined. 
Again,  girls  who  have  been  trained  in  a  trade 
school  must  practically  acquire  the  trade  anew, 
or  drop  it  entirely  when  they  enter  a  workshop, 
because  they  did  slovenly  work  in  school  and 
will  not  do  conscientious,  thorough  work  in  the 
shop. 

This  chapter  should  not  be  misconstrued  as 
an  attack  on  the  trade  school.  The  girl  who 
elects  the  technical  high-school  course  and  then 
enters  a  millinery  workroom  certainly  has  the 
advantage  over  the  girl  who  never  went  to  a 
trade  school  and  whose  fingers  are  awkward 
and  unused  to  handwork  of  any  sort.  But  I 
certainly  do  wish  to  warn  girls  against  the  type 


108 


MILLINEEY 


of  private  trade  schools  which  assures  the  stu- 
dent that  she  will  be  saved  all  apprenticeship 
and  be  able  to  take  a  place  as  trimmer  on  leav- 
ing the  school.  These  irresponsible  managers 
of  rapid-instruction  schools  are  to  blame  for 
the  tremendous  influx  of  half -trained  girls  into 
the  trade  fields.  Their  graduates"  must  com- 
pete with  girls  who  have  worked  their  way  up  by 
hard  experience.  Unwilling  to  start  afresh  and 
acquire  a  practical  knowledge  of  the  trade,  they 
hang  on  the  fringe  of  the  millinery  world, 
working  for  a  mere  pittance  and  never  rising  to 
that  position  of  independence  which  a  real 
knowledge  of  the  trade  insures. 

^^But  I  know  a  woman  who  is  head  of  the 
millinery  department  of  a  store  and  she  cannot 
trim  a  hat!"  exclaims  one  reader. 

Quite  possibly  this  is  true,  for  I  know  just 
such  a  woman.  She  cannot  trim  a  hat — ^but  she 
knows  how  it  ought  to  be  trimmed,  and  she 
knows  a  great  many  other  important  points  in 
the  business  or  she  would  not  be  head  of  the 
department.  And  she  served  a  hard  appren- 
ticeship. 

The  successful  woman  to  whom  I  refer  start- 
ed fifteen  years  ago  as  errand  girl  in  the  milli- 
nery department  of  a  then  young  store.  When 
the  saleswomen  in  the  department  wanted  some 
one  to  hold  hats  for  them  while  serving  a  cus- 
tomer, or  a  girl  to  run  upstairs  and  get  a  hat 


MILLINERY 


109 


which  the  trimmer  was  just  finishing,  this  little 
twelve-year-old  worker  did  their  bidding,  feWhen 
hats  were  to  be  delivered  by  special  messenger, 
she  carried  them  home.  Thus  she  heard  the 
comments  of  customers.  She  learned  why  some 
girls  are  better  saleswomen  than  others.  She 
found  out  that  by  changing  the  tilt  of  a  hat, 
the  direction  of  a  feather,  the  arrangement  of 
a  bow  or  a  flower,  an  unbecoming  hat  became 
becoming — and  salable. 

In  the  workroom  she  studied  how  waste  was 
prevented  by  competent  trimmers  and  fore- 
women. She  learned  the  values  of  trimmings 
and  of  workers.  She  saw  how  the  firm  guarded 
against  loss  through  carrying  too  heavy  a  stock. 

A¥hen  other  errand  girls  went  into  the  shop 
to  sew,  she  preferred  to  remain  in  the  show- 
rooms and  run  errands  between  the  shop  and 
the  showroom.  When  she  was  sixteen  and 
donned  long  skirts,  she  commenced  to  sell  hats. 
She  studied  the  faces  of  her  customers  and 
never  let  one  of  them  leave  the  store  unless  the 
hat  suited  the  face.  She  drew  trade  such  as  the 
store  had  never  been  able  to  control. 

In  time  the  buyer  of  the  department  con- 
sulted her  about  styles  preferred  by  her  trade. 
The  head  saleswoman  left  the  store  to  marry, 
and  the  one-time  errand  girl  succeeded  her. 
Armed  with  this  authority,  she  entered  the 
workroom  and  dictated  the  department's  policy. 


110 


MILLINERY 


She  knew  what  her  trade  wanted  and  insisted 
that  the  milliners  under  her  should  please  her 
trade.  The  firm,  watching  the  growing  profits 
in  the  department,  backed  her  with  its  au- 
thority. 

The  buyer  of  the  department,  who  also  bought 
for  the  ribbon  department,  died  suddenly  of 
heart-disease.  The  one-time  errand  girl  was 
appointed  as  his  successor  and  at  his  salary. 

She  served  an  apprenticeship  to  become  a 
buyer.  She  would  have  become  the  buyer  in 
any  department  where  she  started,  simply  be- 
cause it  was  in  her  to  succeed.  She  made  a  study 
of  the  department,  its  trade,  and  its  trend.  She 
did  not  pretend  to  trim  a  hat,  but  she  could  tell 
a  customer  how  an  undesirable  hat  could  be 
made  becoming,  and  then  from  the  customer 
she  went  to  the  milliner  and  had  the  change 
made.  Some  day  she  will  own  a  shop,  and  no 
forewoman,  milliner  or  trimmer  will  be  able  to 
waste  her  stock  or  distate  the  policy  of  her  es- 
tablishment. 

And  that  brings  us  to  the  common  mistake  of 
the  woman  with  a  little  capital. 

^^My  husband  died  recently,  leaving  me  three 
thousand  dollars  in  life  insurance.  I  want  to 
invest  at  least  half  of  it  in  some  sort  of  business. 
We  have  no  good  millinery  store  in  this  town. 
How  shall  I  start  oneT' 

Any  number  of  pitiful  little  tragedies  of 


MILLINERY 


111 


finance  are  suggested  by  these  letters.  For 
even  when  a  woman  is  advised  against  the  step 
she  follows  her  own  inclination  and  opens  the 
shop,  only  to  lose  all  through  her  ignorance  of 
the  trade.  She  does  not  know  how  to  buy.  She 
does  not  know  how  to  direct  the  work  of  those 
whose  knowledge  of  hat-making  and  trimming 
is  necessary  to  draw  custom.  She  is  deceived 
by  unscrupulous  jobbers  and  wholesalers. 

The  woman  with  a  little  money  to  invest 
should  not  consider  opening  a  millinery  store 
unless  she  can  spend  at  least  two  seasons  actu- 
ally working  in  a  wholesale  trimming  establish- 
ment in  a  millinery  center  like  New  York,  Chi- 
cago, or  St.  Joe.  She  should  take  any  sort  of 
work  offered,  and  keep  her  eyes  everlastingly 
open  to  what  is  going  on  around  her  in  the  work- 
room. At  the  end  of  her  second  season  she 
may  not  know  how  to  trim  hats,  but  she  will 
know  many  tricks  of  the  trade,  and  how  to  select 
a  trimmer  for  her  venture,  also  something  about 
buying  goods.  This  work  in  a  trade  center  may 
not  even  pay  her  board,  unless  she  lives  at  a 
home  for  working-girls ;  but  on  the  other  hand 
it  may  open  her  eyes  to  the  pitfalls  of  the  busi- 
ness, and  save  for  herself  and  her  family  the 
money  she  was  so  keen  to  invest. 

If  she  cannot  serve  the  commercial  appren- 
ticeship, then  she  should  find  a  practical  part- 
ner, rather  than  hire  all  of  her  workers.  Per- 


MILLINERY 


haps  there  is  a  really  competent  milliner  in  her 
own  town  or  vicinity,  struggling  with  the  prob- 
lem of  small  capital  or  a  shop  which  she  cannot 
afford  to  make  attractive  or  which  is  located 
far  from  the  center  of  the  town.  If  the  prac- 
tical trimmer  and  the  widow  with  money  to 
invest  can  join  forces,  the  widow's  investment 
will  be  much  safer,  for  her  partner's  aim  will 
be  to  buy  as  frugally  as  possible  and  thus  in- 
sure the  biggest  possible  profits.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  milliner  working  on  salary  for  the  in- 
experienced investor  of  small  capital  will  think 
only  of  making  a  big  showing  to  the  trade.  She 
will  order  stock  far  beyond  the  needs  of  the 
town,  and  unless  she  is  an  unusual  character 
she  will  not  prevent  the  small  leaks  in  the  work- 
room which  cut  down  profits  and  often  lead  to 
failure. 


CHAPTER  IX 


TELEPHONE  OPERATING 

The  girl  with  commercial  ambition  who 
has  no  knowledge  of  stenography,  type- 
writing or  bookkeeping,  nor  the  time  and 
funds  to  acquire  it,  should  consider  tele- 
phone operating.  If  she  has  adaptability,  keen 
powers  of  observation,  persistency,  and  the  wis- 
dom of  secrecy  concerning  her  employer's  af- 
fairs, she  will  advance  to  a  position  of  trust  as 
rapidly  by  way  of  the  telephone  switchboard 
as  by  the  stenographer's  desk.  Scores  of  wom- 
en who  have  no  knowledge  of  stenography  or 
typewriting  now  hold  positions  of  responsibility 
and  draw  good  salaries.  Other  girls  may  do  the 
same.  The  first  important  means  toward  this 
end  is  to  secure  a  hearing  and  prove  one's 
worth.  The  switchboard  provides  a  business 
door  easy  to  open,  and  one  which  may  lead 
eventually  to  the  innermost  shrine. 

In  every  city  hundreds  of  girls  preside  over 
branch  exchanges  for  the  beggarly  salary  of 
five  dollars  a  week.   They  are  the  same  girls 

113 


114        TELEPHONE  OPERATING 


who,  armed  with  a  smattering  of  stenography 
or  bookkeeping,  would  be  working  for  a  petty 
lawyer  or  in  a  cashier's  cage  of  a  small  shop 
for  the  same  sum,  five  dollars  a  week.  Always 
it  is  the  girl,  and  not  the  work,  that  determines 
the  wages.  And  the  same  girl  who  would  be- 
come private  secretary  if  she  had  a  knowledge 
of  stenography  may  become  a  department 
manager  or  the  trusted  aide  to  the  senior  part- 
ner through  her  cleverness  and  tact  at  the 
switchboard.  Capability  will  manifest  itself 
just  as  quickly  in  handling  jacks  and  plugs  as  in 
taking  dictation.  In  fact,  considering  the  enor- 
mous output  of  ^ ^business  colleges,'^  half- 
trained,  almost  unlettered  stenographers,  I 
honestly  believe  that  the  expert  telephone  oper- 
ator has  the  better  business  opportunities. 

Certainly  I  would  urge  the  girl  who  has  no 
trade,  who  suffers  sudden  financial  reverses, 
and  who  is  naturally  intelligent  and  refined,  to 
turn  to  telephoning  rather  than  to  stenography. 
If  accepted  as  a  learner  in  a  large  city  exchange, 
she  will  not  lose  a  day's  time,  but  from  the  hour 
she  begins  to  study  she  will  be  earning  a  small 
stipend  at  least. 

The  out-of-town  girl  whose  knowledge  of  the 
work  is  limited  to  the  system  employed  at  the 
local  exchange  should  not  judge  the  opportuni- 
ties offered  by  what  she  sees  in  her  home  city 
or  village.    There  positions  may  be  few,  and 


TELEPHONE  OPERATING  115 


obtainable  only  through  influence.  In  the  large 
cities  these  conditions  do  not  exist.  Good  oper- 
ators are  in  tremendous  demand,  and  the  tele- 
phone companies  run  almost  regular  advertise- 
ments for  learners  who  are  paid  during  their 
training. 

The  girl  from  a  village  or  small  city  can  have 
no  conception  of  the  business  done  by  telephone 
companies  in  great  commercial  centers,  nor  the 
number  of  operators  required.  A  few  figures 
may  be  illuminating.  On  J  anuary  1, 1907,  when 
the  telephone  had  been  in  commercial  use  ex- 
actly thirty  years,  eight  million  telephone  sta- 
tions, the  technical  term  which  includes  receiver 
and  transmitter,  had  been  installed  all  over  the 
world.  Of  this  number  the  United  States  could 
claim  68.5  per  cent.,  or  over  five  million  sta- 
tions. Since  then  the  number  of  installations 
has  increased  at  a  phenomenal  rate,  correspond- 
ing with  the  manifold  uses  to  which  commerce 
has  been  able  to  put  the  telephone. 

As  a  result  statisticians  declare  that  to-day  it 
is  more  than  probable  that  the  United  States 
could  claim  six  million  stations  in  use.  In  New 
York  City  alone  30,000  girls  and  women  are  em- 
ployed to  operate  public  and  private  exchanges, 
of  which  about  7,000  are  in  the  service  of  the. 
New  York  Telephone  Company.  The  others 
handle  switchboards  in  business  houses,  depart- 
ment stores,  hotels,  apartment  houses,  any  sort 


116       TELEPHONE  OPEEATING 


of  an  establishment  where  a  switchboard  is 
maintained  to  connect  different  departments  or 
branches  or  employees.  Chicago  follows  New 
York  closely  as  a  Mecca  for  telephone  opera- 
tors, and  in  any  city  of  100,000  population  or 
more  a  girl  is  reasonably  sure  of  securing  an 
opening  almost  immediately. 

But  the  reader  must  not  think  that  any  and 
every  girl  is  suited  to  this  work.  The  applicant 
for  a  position  or  for  training  in  a  school  for 
operators  must  have  natural  intelligence  and 
quickness  in  thought  and  action.  The  dull,  slow 
girl  who  moves  with  exaggerated  deliberation 
and  who  does  not  grasp  an  idea  quickly  will  not 
succeed.  The  applicant  must  speak  distinctly 
and  write  a  legible  hand.  She  must  have  good 
health,  good  eyesight,  good  hearing  and  a  fair 
education.  In  the  larger  cities,  where  telephone 
operating  is  taught  by  the  local  company,  no 
girl  who  has  not  completed  her  grammar  school 
grades  will  be  considered  as  an  applicant,  while 
preference  is  given  to  the  high  school  graduate 
or  the  girl  who  has  had  a  year  or  two  of  high 
school  training.  This  is  because  the  additional 
training  is  apt  to  make  a  girl  think  more  quick- 
ly and  grasp  instructions  more  readily. 

Applicants  between  the  ages  of  seventeen  and 
twenty-three  are  given  the  preference  also.  The 
girl  under  seventeen  lacks  the  physical  strength 
and  the  mental  poise  to  handle  a  switchboard. 


TELEPHONE  OPERATING  117 


while  the  woman  past  twenty-three  who  has 
never  had  any  sort  of  business  training  is  not 
always  adaptable.  But  in  exceptional  cases, 
where  the  applicant  betrays  alertness  and  capa- 
bility during  the  course  of  her  interview,  the 
age  limit  does  not  bar  her  out. 

The  girl  who  thinks  she  is  physically  and  nerv- 
ously able  to  stand  the  work — for  especially  to 
the  beginner,  handling  a  switchboard  is  no  easy 
matter — should  ascertain  by  inquiry  at  the  traf- 
fic department  of  the  local  company  where  to 
apply  for  work.  She  will  be  given  the  address 
of  the  school  of  instruction  or  the  exchange 
where  applications  are  received.  Here  she  fills 
out  a  blank,  giving  name,  address,  education, 
previous  employment  if  any,  condition  of  her 
eyesight  and  hearing,  and  references. 

When  the  latter  have  been  investigated,  the 
girl  is  summoned  to  the  school  and  interviewed 
by  the  manager,  generally  a  woman.  Her  hear- 
ing and  eyesight  are  tested,  and  her  enunciation 
and  pronunciation  are  passed  upon  critically. 
Her  general  appearance  of  neatness  and  alert- 
ness has  much  to  do  with  her  acceptance  or 
rejection.  Only  twelve  per  cent,  of  the  ap- 
plicants for  positions  succeed  in  passing  this 
examination  for  admission  to  the  operators' 
school  connected  with  the  New  York  Telephone 
Company. 

Once  the  girl  is  accepted  she  enters  the  train- 


118       TELEPHONE  OPERATING 


ing-school  for  a  period  of  one  month,  during 
which  she  is  paid  five  dollars  per  week,  and  mnst 
spend  in  the  classroom  practically  the  same 
hours  she  will  be  employed  when  she  becomes 
a  graduated  operator,  or  from  nine  o'clock  to 
five. 

This  classroom  contains  a  huge  switchboard, 
accommodating  twenty-five  operators,  at  which 
girls  secure  practical  training  and  experience. 
The  branches  taught  theoretically,  as  well  as 
practically,  by  lectures,  consist  of  the  use  of  the 
various  parts  of  the  operating  equipment,  the 
local  telephone  geography,  the  proper  method 
of  completing  any  call  and  the  necessity  of  being 
courteous  in  all  relations  with  the  public.  The 
location  of  the  various  exchanges  all  over  the 
city  and  the  general  geography  of  the  city  are 
taught  by  the  aid  of  huge  maps.  A  girl  must 
know  the  location  of  fire-alarm  stations,  engine 
houses,  police  stations,  and  hospitals.  She  must 
be  prepared  to  handle  every  sort  of  emergency 
call,  for  many  a  burglar  has  been  trapped,  many 
a  fire  checked,  many  a  panic  averted,  through 
the  cool  head  and  quick  action  of  a  telephone 
operator. 

Every  day  she  is  given  drills  in  pronuncia- 
tion and  the  correct  method  of  modulating  her 
voice.  In  a  great  exchange  with  scores  of  girls 
working  at  the  switchboard,  not  a  single  voice 
is  raised  above  what  is  commonly  known  as  a 


TELEPHONE  OPERATING  119 

whisper.  The  girl  with  the  strident,  harsh  voice 
has  no  place  in  a  telephone  exchange,  and  will 
not  be  tolerated. 

The  student  begins  to  operate  a  switchboard 
on  the  very  first  day.  She  dons  a  metal  head- 
piece, holding  the  receiver  directly  o\ser  her 
ears ;  while  about  her  shoulders  is  fastened  an- 
other metallic  harness  holding  the  transmitter 
into  which  she  speaks.  Her  hands  never  touch 
either  transmitter  or  receiver,  but  are  busy  with 
the  plugs  of  the  switchboard.  Her  first  lesson 
at  the  board  generally  lasts  an  hour.  Day  by 
day  her  time  is  increased,  as  her  assurance  and 
strength  grow.  At  first,  delicate  or  nervous 
girls  have  been  known  to  faint  under  the  strain, 
but  experience  proves  that  this  effect  is  due 
more  to  nervous  strain  and  anxiety  to  succeed 
than  to  real  physical  exhaustion. 

At  the  end  of  a  month  or  perhaps  five  or  six 
weeks,  the  girl  moves  from  this  very  practical 
classroom  into  an  exchange,  where  under  a 
monitor  or  inspector  she  continues  to  receive 
instructions.  These  inspectors  pace  behind  the 
operators,  not  only  to  advise  and  assist  new- 
comers, but  to  keep  the  entire  force  alert  and 
keyed  up  to  its  work. 

In  a  city  like  New  York  or  Chicago,  the  new 
operator  is  paid  six  dollars  a  week.  At  the  end 
of  a  year,  she  should  be  an  expert  operator, 
drawing  ten  dollars  per  week.   Then  if  she  re- 


12Q       TELEPHONE  OPERATING 


mains  in  the  employ  of  the  company,  she  is  ad- 
vanced gradually  to  the  following  positions: 
Senior  operator,  eleven  dollars  per  week ;  chief 
supervisor,  fourteen  dollars  a  week;  chief  oper- 
ator, twenty  to  twenty-five  dollars  per  week. 

In  a  telephone  exchange  the  working  day  is 
about  eight  and  a  half  hours,  with  two  thirty- 
minute  rest  periods,  morning  and  afternoon,  or 
for  night  workers  at  about  the  same  intervals 
apart.  All  over  the  country  the  telephone  com- 
panies are  famous  for  their  welfare  work,  but 
particularly  so  in  New  York  City.  Here  you 
win  find  a  matron  or  welfare  secretary  at  every 
exchange.  The  building  always  has  its  kitchen, 
dining-room,  sitting-room,  supplied  with  read- 
ing matter,  an  emergency  hospital,  and  a  locker- 
room  with  an  individual  locker  for  each  opera- 
tor. Hot  tea  and  coffee  are  served  to  the  oper- 
ators free  of  charge  at  any  hour  of  the  day  or 
night,  and  girls  are  permitted  to  bring  their  own 
luncheons  to  eat  with  the  beverages  served  in 
the  dining-rooms. 

This  is  the  bright  side  of  the  exchange  pic- 
ture. Its  hard  side  shows  the  nervous  strain 
under  which  girls  must  work,  the  ever-present 
necessity  of  concentration,  and  the  extreme  dis- 
courtesy, almost  insults,  which  even  good  oper- 
ators meet  from  a  certain  portion  of  the  general 
public.  Many  operators  complain  of  the  small 
pay  and  the  part  which  oflSce  politics  play  in 


TELEPHONE  OPERATING  121 


securing  promotion,  but  go  where  you  will,  you 
will  find  malcontents  who  are  unworthy  of  pro- 
motion, who  are  earning  all  that  their  services 
are  worth,  and  who  cry  Favoritism"  when 
others  are  promoted.  On  the  whole,  I  believe 
— and  scores  of  telephone  operators  have  ex- 
pressed the  same  opinion  to  me^ — that  the  lot  of 
the  telephone  girl  is  far  more  comfortable  than 
that  of  the  average  salesgirl  or  stenographer. 
Certainly  it  is  more  desirable  for  the  girl  of 
natural  refinement  and  reserve  who  dreads  per- 
sonal contact  with  all  sorts  of  men  and  women. 

Naturally,  the  telephone  company  would  like 
to  hold  its  best  operators  in  its  own  exchanges, 
but  business  diplomacy  demands  that  it  furnish 
private  exchanges  with  experts  when  the  re- 
quest for  such  workers  is  made.  Thus  the 
traffic  department  always  has  on  file  a  list 
of  skilled  operators  who  are  willing  to 
accept  positions  in  private  exchanges.  Banks, 
brokerage  concerns,  publication  houses,  de- 
partment stores,  wholesale  establishments, 
hotels,  apartment  houses  and  almost  any 
firm  with  big  interests,  require  capable 
operators  and  pay  from  fifteen  dollars  a 
week  up  for  the  service.  The  salary  depends 
upon  the  girl.  Unfortunately,  there  are  girls 
in  search  of  pin-money  who  accept  small  wages. 
There  are  incompetents  willing  to  work  for  al- 
most any  price  in  the  hopes  that  even  though 


122        TELEPHONE  OPEEATING 


they  fail  at  the  switchboard  they  may  meet  their 
matrimonial  fate.  But  there  are  also  scores 
of  openings  which  demand  good  work  and  pay 
good  wages. 

The  girl  who  uses  her  knowledge  of  telephone 
operating  as  a  stepping-stone  to  broader  busi- 
ness experience  must  consider  what  line  of  busi- 
ness appeals  to  her  most  strongly.  If  she  has 
wanted  to  be  connected  with  a  publishing  firm, 
here  is  her  entering-wedge.  If  she  pleases  the 
editor  or  the  manager  with  her  alert,  quick  serv- 
ice at  the  switchboard,  he  will  lend  willing  ear  to 
her  application  for  the  position  of  manuscript 
reader.  If  real  estate  has  always  held  a  fasci- 
nation for  her,  as  operator  in  a  real-estate  com- 
pany's office  or  in  an  apartment  house,  she  will 
be  brought  in  contact  with  the  class  of  men  who 
are  willing  to  give  a  good  woman  agent  a  hear- 
ing. 

There  is  no  use  to  deny  the  fact  that  the 
swichboard  is  far  more  apt  to  lead  the  way  to 
matrimony  than  to  business  careers.  The  rec- 
ords of  all  telephone  exchanges  show  that  an 
amazingly  large  number  of  operators  resign  to 
marry,  and  this,  their  employers  claim,  is  not 
due  to  the  traditional  charm  of  low-voiced  mys- 
tery which  clings  to  the  hello"  girl,  but  be- 
cause to  be  a  good  operator  a  girl  must  possess 
all  those  distinctly  feminine  characteristics 
which  appeal — gentleness,  patience  and  good 


TELEPHONE  OPERATING  123 


breeding.  In  many  cities  I  have  personally 
studied  telephone  operators,  standing  outside 
the  exchanges  as  they  came  to  work  and  de- 
parted. Their  bearing,  dress,  conversation,  all 
go  to  prove  that  an  excellent  standard  of 
student-workers  is  demanded,  and  that  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  switchboard,  as  well  as  the  fine 
welfare  work  carried  on  in  exchange  buildings, 
has  resulted  in  attracting  and  creating  a  singu- 
larly nice  class  of  operators. 

The  girl  in  a  small  town  who  desires  a  posi- 
tion at  the  switchboard  is  less  independent  in 
making  her  application  than  is  the  city  girl. 
Here  acquaintance  counts  most  heavily,  and 
personal  influence  must  be  brought  to  bear  on 
the  superintendent  or  manager  of  an  exchange 
which  requires  but  half  a  dozen  operators. 
Even  with  influence,  however,  a  girl  must  pos- 
sess the  same  qualifications  her  city  cousin 
claims — a  distinct  speaking-voice,  keen  hearing 
and  good  eyesight.  As  the  telephone  service  in 
a  small  place  is  generally  more  leisurely  than 
in  a  big  city,  her  temper  will  not  be  so  sorely 
tried  at  the  beginning  of  her  career.  As  no 
school  is  provided  for  her  training,  she  must 
start  with  practical  work.  Substituting  for 
regular  operators  will  form  a  large  part  of  her 
training,  and  eight  dollars  per  week  is  the  maxi- 
mum salary  in  a  small  exchange.  In  a  New 
England  town  of  three  thousand  inhabitants, 


124       TELEPHONE  OPERATING 


where  two  operators  are  employed,  the  superin- 
tendent is  a  woman  who  receives  but  twelve 
dollars  a  week. 

However,  a  girl  who  begins  in  the  exchange 
of  a  small  town  and  tires  of  its  limitations,  may 
eventually  reach  the  goal  of  her  ambitions — an 
exchange  in  a  big  city;  for  if  she  mention  her 
desire  to  the  superintendent  he  will  recommend 
her  to  the  manager  of  some  exchange  in  the  city 
where  she  would  be. 


CHAPTER  X 


WOBKING  FOR  UNCLE  SAM 

Never  before  in  the  history  of  our  Federal 
Government  has  the  obscure  American  woman, 
without  the  influence  of  any  politician,  had  so 
fair  a  chance  to  secure  a  departmental  position. 
Each  year  the  power  of  the  Civil  Service  Com- 
mission, which  makes  the  majority  of  appoint- 
ments in  which  women  are  interested,  is 
strengthened.  Each  year  the  power  of  the  in- 
dividual politician  in  the  matter  of  appoint- 
ments is  weakened.  The  time  when  appoint- 
ment to  positions  in  any  of  the  Federal 
departments  at  Washington  was  in  the  gift  of 
Congressmen  and  Senators  is  practically  past. 

With  this  fair  outlook,  let  the  woman  seek- 
ing employment  ask  what  positions  the  Govern- 
ment offers  women  and  which  one  she  is  best 
able  to  fill. 

The  average  woman  has  rather  hazy  ideas  as 
to  Government  work.  She  has  simply  a  vision 
of  handling  some  sort  of  papers  in  some  sort 
of  a  department  office. 

125 


126     WORKING  FOR  UNCLE  SAM 


The  vast  majority  enter  the  service  as  clerks 
or  copyists  at  a  salary  of  $720  or  $900  a  year, 
and  rise  gradually  to  a  salary  of  $1,500  or  more, 
doing  purely  mechanical  or  clerical  work. 

This  branch  of  the  Federal  service  is  known 
as  '^Clerks'  Departmental  Service."  Exami- 
nations are  held  twice  a  year — spring  and  fall 
— at  various  points  all  over  the  country,  selected 
by  the  Civil  Service  Commission.  A  girl  does 
not  have  to  go  to  Washington  to  take  this  ex- 
amination. It  is  given  in  several  cities  of  her 
own  State.  For  instance,  in  Ohio  examinations 
are  generally  held  at  Cincinnati,  Cleveland,  Co- 
lumbus, Ironton,  Toledo  and  Zanesville. 

As  this  is  the  service  in  which  the  majority 
of  women  find  positions,  and  as  its  examinations 
are  the  simplest,  I  am  giving  exact  instructions 
for  the  girl  who  thinks  she  would  like  to  seek 
an  appointment  as  a  clerk.  The  Civil  Service 
Commission  issues  twice  a  year — ^in  January 
and  July — a  manual  giving  all  the  information 
needed  at  first  by  would-be  appointees.  In  ad- 
dition to  securing  a  copy  of  this  manual,  which 
is  sent  on  request,  the  applicant  should  write 
to  the  Civil  Service  Commission,  Washington, 
D.  C,  several  weeks  before  the  examination  is 
scheduled,  stating  simply  that  she  wants  to  take 
the  Clerk-Copyist  examination,  and  asking  at 
what  point  nearest  her  home  and  on  what  date 
said  examination  will  be  held,  and  closing  witli 


.WOEKING  FOR  UNCLE  SAM  127 


the  request  that  application  blanks,  printed  in- 
structions and  sample  copies  of  examinations 
should  be  sent  to  her.  If  she  writes  this  neatly 
and  concisely  on  a  postal-card,  her  considera- 
tion will  be  appreciated  by  the  busy  clerks. 

In  return  for  this  postal  request  she  will  re- 
ceive an  application  blank,  which  she  must  fill 
out  carefully,  and  a  card  of  admission  to  the 
examination,  which  she  must  not  fail  to  take 
to  the  city  where  the  examination  is  to  be  held. 
Without  it  she  will  be  refused  admittance. 

For  this  examination  you  will  need  a  thor- 
ough knowledge  of  arithmetic  (geometry  and 
algebra  not  necessary),  English  grammar,  spell- 
ing, copying  from  rough  draft,  and  the  general 
information  furnished  by  a  graded  public-school 
course  or  its  equivalent  in  private  tuition.  You 
will  be  expected  to  know  something  of  the  Gov- 
ernment under  which  you  are  to  serve,  and  of 
the  current  events  in  which  the  Government  is 
vitally  interested;  and  above  all  things,  accu- 
racy and  neatness  will  help  you  wonderfully 
in  this  examination. 

For  instance,  you  will  be  given  a  certain  selec- 
tion from  some  book  or  paper  to  copy.  Do  not 
improve  on  that  copy.  If  *^dog'^  is  spelled 
**dawg,''  write  it  in  that  way.  If  the  punctua- 
tion is  wrong,  do  not  correct  it.  If  your  exami- 
nation instructions  advise  you  to  leave  a  two- 
inch  margin,  do  not  change  it  to  a  one-inch  mar- 


128     WOEKING  FOR  UNCLE  SAM 


gin  just  because  you  think  the  latter  improves 
the  appearance  of  your  paper  or  you  have  al- 
ways allowed  the  one-inch  margin  in  school. 
The  Government  is  looking  for  fine,  accurate 
human  machines  to  do  routine  work.  Your  fit- 
ness for  the  position  will  be  measured  largely 
by  your  ability  to  do  things  just  as  you  are  told 
to  do  them. 

And,  lastly,  you  will  be  expected  to  write  an 
intelligent,  if  brief,  essay  on  some  topic  of  na- 
tional interest,  such  as  ^^The  Prospect  of  War 
With  Japan,''  or  ^^What  Has  the  Pure-Food 
Law  Done  for  National  Health?''  So  if  you 
are  not  in  touch  with  current  events,  acquire 
some  of  this  most  desirable  knowledge. 

Now  we  will  say  that  you  have  taken  the  ex- 
amination and  are  waiting  to  learn  of  jour  fate. 
Three  months  will  elapse  before  you  hear  from 
the  commission.  If  you  rate  seventy  per  cent, 
or  higher  you  will  be  placed  on  the  eligible  list. 
How  long  a  time  will  elapse  before  your  ap- 
pointment is  determined  by  various  factors: 
Firstly,  your  rating.  The  higher  the  rating,  the 
more  prompt  the  appointment.  The  girl  who 
scores  96.7  will  be  given  the  preference  over  the 
girl  who  scored  78.6,  though  the  latter  may  have 
passed  the  examination  at  an  earlier  date  than 
the  former.  Second,  by  the  number  of  appoint- 
ments already  made  from  your  State.  Appoint- 
ments are  apportioned  to  the  various  States  by 


WORKING  FOR  UNCLE  SAM  129 


the  Civil  Service  Commission.  For  instance, 
from  July  16,  1883,  to  December  31,  1907,  the 
State  of  Pennsylvania  was  allowed  six  hundred 
and  thirty  appointments,  while  Oregon  was  en- 
titled to  only  forty-one. 

Again,  we  will  suppose  that  you  have  passed 
with  a  high  rating  and  your  appointment  comes 
promptly.  You  may  or  may  not  be  offered  a 
position  in  Washington.  You  may  find  yourself 
scheduled  for  New  York  City,  Philadelphia, 
Boston  or  San  Francisco;  wherever  there  is  a 
Custom  House  in  which  a  clerk  is  needed ;  or  in 
Omaha,  Butte  or  Fort  Worth,  wherever  a  Pen- 
sion Office  or  Land  Office  may  be  in  need  of  a 
Federal  employee.  The  Government  official  who 
needs  a  clerk  or  assistant  of  any  sort  notifies 
the  Civil  Service  Commission  in  Washington, 
which  looks  over  the  list  of  eligibles,  and  selects 
the  name  carrying  the  highest  average,  whose 
owner  lives  within  the  district  entitled  to  the 
next  appointment. 

Now,  if  you  do  not  wish  to  accept  that  posi- 
tion because  of  some  vital  reason  to  yourself, 
personal  health  or  family  responsibility,  you 
can  take  chances  on  refusing  it.  But  I  am  told 
that  it  is  much  safer  to  take  the  first  appoint- 
ment offered,  show  your  ability,  and  later  ask 
for  a  transfer. 

Another  supposition :  Your  appointment  or- 
ders you  to  Washington  as  a  clerk  in  the  Treas- 


13Q     WORKING  FOE  UNCLE  SAM 


ury  Department  at  $900  a  year — a  very  fair 
salary  for  a  beginner.  An  inexperienced  girl 
would  not  get  as  much  in  a  business  house  of 
any  sort. 

If  you  have  a  family  dependent  upon  you,  a 
mother  or  younger  sister,  you  must  figure  on 
their  support;  and  when  the  family  is  small, 
experienced  Government  workers  all  advise  that 
the  appointee  remove  those  dependent  upon  her 
to  Washington,  even  though  living  in  Washing- 
ton is  high.  Many  maintain  that  it  is  higher 
than  anywhere  else  in  America.  Girls  old  in  the 
service  furnish  these  figures:  Very  ordinary 
board,  with  a  small  room,  $30  a  month;  wash- 
ing, $4;  carfare,  from  $2  to  $5.  Bare  living 
expenses  absorb  forty  of  the  seventy-five  dol- 
lars received  each  month.  Out  of  the  remainder 
a  girl  clerk  must  dress  herself  well,  support 
those  dependent  upon  her,  and  pay  for  such 
pleasures  as  sightseeing  or  threater-going,  and 
entertain  relatives,  of  whom  the  average  clerk 
sees  many  during  her  Washington  experience. 

If  several  girls  wish  to  club  together,  they 
can  secure  a  desirable  flat  for  $45  a  month,  a 
servant  for  $14,  and  a  decent  table  can  be  set 
for  $50  more,  making  a  total  of  expenses  for  the 
month,  including  gas  and  incidentals,  $115,  or 
a  trifle  less  than  thirty  dollars  apiece  for  a 
club  of  four  girls.  The  advantage  of  this  ar- 
rangement lies  in  the  home  life  and  the  social 


WORKING  FOR  UNCLE  SAM  131 


pleasures  possible  only  in  one's  own  apartment, 
and  the  better  grade  of  food  furnished. 

The  new  Federal  clerk  in  Washington  finds 
that  her  hours  are  easy.  As  a  rule,  seven  hours 
constitute  a  day's  work.  She  reports  at  nine 
and  works  until  four-thirty,  with  half  an  hour 
for  lunch.  When,  in  the  opinion  of  her  chief, 
an  emergency  requires  overtime,  no  extra  com- 
pensation is  allowed.  Thirty  days'  annual 
leave  on  salary,  a;ad  in  meritorious  cases,  thirty 
days'  sick  leave  with  pay,  are  allowed  at  the 
discretion  of  a  head  of  a  department. 

The  conscientious  clerk  is  practically  assured 
of  a  life  position  once  she  is  installed  by  the 
Government.  Office  politics,  such  as  one  finds 
in  the  average  business  house,  cannot  affect  her 
tenure  of  office,  though  they  may  prevent  her 
promotion.  The  Government  does  not  ^^fail,'' 
nor  does  it  install  a  new  chief  of  a  department 
who  ousts  old  employees  in  favor  of  personal 
friends.  The  existence  of  the  Civil  Service 
Commission  prevents  the  latter  catastrophe. 

The  advantages  of  a  clerkship  in  the  depart- 
mental service  may  be  summarized  as  follows : 
A  regular  income  larger  than  the  average  sal- 
ary paid  in  offices.  No  work  to  take  home  at 
night.  A  clerk  cannot  be  dismissed  without  just 
cause,  and  complaints  against  her  must  under- 
go rigid  investigation  at  the  hands  of  the  Civil 
Service  Commission. 


132     ;\VOEKING  FOE  UNCLE  SAM 


The  disadvantages  are:  A  sedentary  life, 
mostly  copying,  whicli  is  bad  for  the  general 
health.  As  in  teaching  or  the  business  field,  the 
woman  must  do  more  work  than  a  man  to  at- 
tract the  attention  of  her  chief,  and  men  are 
advanced  for  less  ability  and  on  smaller  pre- 
texts than  women.  The  routine  deadens  ambition 
in  the  average  woman,  who  degenerates  into  a 
mere  machine. 

If  a  girl  wants  a  fair  income  to  spend  on  her- 
self, it  offers  a  fair  prospect.  If  she  is  domestic 
in  her  tastes  and  wants  a  home,  a  husband  and 
children,  she  is  practically  renouncing  all  those 
when  she  enters  the  Government  office. 

So  much  for  the  average  clerkship.  Now  to 
girls  who  have  specialized  or  who  wish  to  do 
so.  Some  excellent  positions  are  open  to  such 
girls.  Examinations,  salaries,  age  limitations 
and  other  details  vary  according  to  the  work. 
The  average  limitation  as  to  youth  is  eighteen 
years.  The  average  age  of  appointees  is 
twenty-eight  years. 

In  Washington  and  other  cities  there  are 
Federal  positions  open  to  expert  stenographers 
and  expert  typewritists.  The  commonplace 
worker  in  either  line  should  not  waste  time  ap- 
plying. Preference  is  given  to  the  male  stenog- 
rapher or  typist,  and  the  ambitious  girl  must 
make  a  fine  rating  to  secure  the  appointment. 
A  few  women  bookkeepers  are  employed,  but 


WORKING  FOR  UNCLE  SAM  133 


preference  is  given  to  tHe  men  in  this  work. 
Girls  who  have  been  well  trained  in  drawing 
sometimes  secure  excellent  positions  in  the 
Bureau  of  Forestry  and  the  Department  of 
Agriculture,  where  the  ability  to  draw  and  tint 
well  counts.  Also  the  well-trained  girl  can  se- 
cure architectural  drafting  or  drawing  in  vari- 
ous departments.  This  work,  of  course,  appeals 
particularly  to  the  girl  who  has  spent  years  per- 
fecting herself  as  an  architect,  but  who  lacks 
the  business  ability  to  hold  her  own  against  an 
army  of  competitors.  In  the  department  of 
Government  printing,  skilled  workers  who  have 
had  experience  in  the  regulation  printing  and 
binding  establishments  can  secure  postions  as 
compositors,  proofreaders,  binders,  etc.  And 
the  girl  who  has  specialized  on  botany  can  some- 
times pass  a  special  examination  and  secure  a 
desirable  position  in  the  Department  of  Agri- 
culture. 

Federal  positions  outside  of  Washington  in- 
clude kindergarten,  teaching  and  industrial 
teaching  in  the  Indian  schools,  matrons  in  In- 
dian schools,  teaching  in  Hawaiian,  Porto  Rican 
and  Philippine  service,  trained  nursing  in 
Isthmian  or  Philippine  service,  inspection  in 
immigration  and  custom  service. 

Positions  in  the  Congressional  Library  are 
not  secured  through  the  Civil  Service  Commis- 


134     WOEKING  FOR  UNCLE  SAM 


sion.  The  power  of  appointment  is  vested  in 
Herbert  Putnam,  librarian. 

The  girl  who  wants  a  position  of  any  sort 
under  Uncle  Sam  should  write  to  the  Civil  Serv- 
ice Commission  for  a  manual,  and  study  it 
thoroughly.  She  may  find  inspiration  in  its 
pages  and  a  definite  object  toward  which  she 
can  work. 


CHAPTER  XI 


IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP 

This  chapter  is  designed  to  be  a  frank  warn- 
ing against  the  beauty  shop  and  its  arts  as  a 
means  of  livelihood  for  any  American  girl  of 
intelligence  and  self-respect.  I  propose  to  tell 
my  readers  jnst  what  it  means  to  work  in  such 
an  establishment,  and  to  induce  them  to  seek 
some  other  means  of  self-support. 

In  penning  such  a  warning,  I  speak  from  a 
viewpoint  verging  on  actual  experience.  A 
member  of  my  household  and  several  personal 
friends  have  undertaken  the  work,  only  to  drop 
it  almost  immediately  because  they  found  it 
uncongenial  and  degrading.  This  was  not  be- 
cause of  the  scandal  which  always  shadows  a 
beauty-shop,  because  the  self-supporting  girl 
rarely  finds  any  trade  or  profession  over  which 
the  slimy  trail  of  gossip  does  not  pass.  It  was 
because  these  girls,  possessing  a  sense  of  honor, 
natural  reserve  and  refinement,  found  them- 
selves placed  in  a  position  worse  than  menial. 

You  think  you  could  not  be  a  second-maid  or 

i35 


136         IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP 


waitress  because  you  would  be  one  of  the  serv- 
ants. You  think  you  could  not  endure  clerking 
in  a  store  because  you  would  be  compelled  to 
serve  customers  who  are  personally  offensive 
to  you.  You  think  you  could  not  work  in  a  fac- 
tory because  you  have  heard  that  foremen  and 
forewomen  are  domineering  and  callous.  Well, 
all  of  these  drawbacks  and  more  you  will  find 
in  the  life  of  the  manicurist,  hairdresser  or 
masseuse  in  the  so-called  beauty  shop. 

The  first  time  that  a  customer  tells  you  to 
^^keep  the  change/^  you  will  realize  that  you 
are  on  a  plane  with  the  butler,  the  footman,  the 
public  waiter.  The  first  time  that  you  decline 
to  serve  a  customer  who,  though  elegantly 
dressed,  may  be  foul  of  speech  or  under  the  in- 
fluence of  liquor,  you  will  be  asked  to  find  work 
elsewhere.  And  your  first  lesson  from  foremen 
or  forewomen  in  the  shop  will  be  that,  while 
there  are  tricks  in  all  trades,  at  the  beauty  shops 
there  are  more  tricks  and  more  downright  dis- 
honesty than  you,  in  your  innocence,  ever 
dreamed  of.  When  you  have  read  this  chapter, 
I  hope  you  will  have  no  illusions  about  the 
trade  and  its  tricks. 

To  begin  with,  if  you  are  the  average  girl 
who  knows  little  or  nothing  of  the  various 
trades  or  lines  of  business  for  your  sex,  you 
imagine  that  you  can  go  to  a  school  of  mani- 
curing, hairdressing  and  massage  in  New  York 


IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP  137 


City,  and  within  a  few  months  be  managing  an 
establishment  of  your  own.  But  this  is  what 
will  happen : 

You  will  promise  to  pay  anything  from 
twenty-five  to  one  hundred  dollars,  according 
to  your  gullibility,  for  the  course  of  training 
that  is  to  lead  to  a  diploma"  and  a  guaranteed 
position.  You  will  find  yourself  in  a  shop,  not 
a  school,  where  you  will  pay  for  the  privilege 
of  being  an  apprentice.  You,  who  had  such 
lovely  visions  of  gliding  over  velvet-covered 
floors  in  a  long  black  frock,  with  perfectly 
coiffed  hair  and  tapering  white  fingers,  will  be 
sweeping,  dusting,  running  after  hairpins,  nets 
and  shampoo  mixtures,  patiently  holding  the 
dye  for  the  expert  worker,  washing  brushes  and 
combs  and  cleaning  up  the  tiny  apartments  in 
which  the  various  toilet  mysteries  are  con-' 
ducted. 

If  your  hair  is  dressed  at  all,  it  will  be  done 
by  a  fellow-apprentice  who,  in  her  inexperience, 
bums  it.  If  you  ask  for  some  of  the  promised 
instruction,  you  will  be  passed  on,  from  one 
worker  to  another,  until  the  best-natured  girl 
on  the  staff  finally  condescends  to  give  you  some 
very  indifferent  instruction.  The  head  of  the 
^'school,''  you  will  generally  find,  knows  little 
or  nothing  about  the  trades.  He  merely  invests 
the  capital  and  trusts  the  actual  work  to  his 
hirelings.    Among  your  fellow-workers,  you 


138         IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP 


will  meet  a  few  men,  mostly  foreigners  of 
vicious  habits. 

Understand  that  this  is  all  under  the  surface. 
Outwardly  the  shop  is  as  beautiful  as  enameled 
paint,  gleaming  mirrors  and  suave  attendants 
can  make  it.  The  game  is  well  played  before 
customers. 

As  the  days  slip  by,  you  will  realize  that  hair- 
dressers deliberately  burn  the  hair  so  that  cus- 
tomers will  be  compelled  to  buy  false  pieces, 
transformations,  switches,  puffs,  etc.  You  will 
discover  that  so-called  experts  in  facial  treat- 
ment often  introduce  poisonous  properties  into 
their  lotions,  and  thus  the  customer  who  falls 
into  their  clutches  must  either  continue  to  have 
her  face  literally  plastered  with  cosmetics  or 
go  to  some  high-priced  baths,  where,  in  retire- 
ment, her  natural  complexion  may  be  restored. 
You  will  learn  of  horrible  cases  of  blood-poison- 
ing due  to  the  use  of  unsterilized  knives  and 
scissors  in  the  manicuring  and  chiropody  de- 
partment. But  all  the  while  the  white  enamel 
gleams,  and  the  mirrors  glitter,  and  snowy 
white  towels  will  be  plentiful. 

Gradually  you  will  realize  that  you  are  get- 
ting a  smattering  of  very  bad  methods  and 
learning  no  branch  of  the  trade  thoroughly/ 
When  you  reach  this  point,  if  you  are  a  sen- 
sible, brave  girl,  you  will  turn  your  back  on  the 
shop  and  seek  some  other  sort  of  work.  If, 


IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP  139 


however,  you  become  panic-stricken  at  the 
thought  of  the  hard-earned  money  you  have  in- 
vested in  your  course/'  you  will  begin  to  work 
desperately,  cajoling  and  bullying  those  above 
you  into  giving  you  a  little  instruction. 

Of  this  sort  of  girl  the  shop  managers  are 
very  anxious  to  rid  themselves,  so  very  soon 
you  will  be  pronounced  fit  for  a  position.  This 
having  been  guaranteed,  you  will  find  yourself 
working  in  an  opposition  shop  for  perhaps  eight 
or  ten  dollars  a  week.  Here  you  will  try  very 
hard  to  do  the  right  thing  for  your  customers ; 
but  it  will  not  last.  To  your  amazement  you 
are  dismissed  without  warning  and  without 
cause.  The  proprietor  of  the  shop  will  merely 
tell  you  that  he  is  cutting  down  his  force.  Busi- 
ness has  fallen  off,  etc.  But  in  a  few  days  you 
will  learn  that  your  successor  is  another  girl 
from  the  shop  or  school''  where  you  were 
trained.  When  you  become  acquainted  with 
more  girls  you  will  learn  that  shop  managers 
have  a  system  of  interchanging  positions  that 
are  merely  temporary,  in  order  to  make  good 
their  worthless  guarantee. 

^^You  take  my  pupils  oif  my  hands,"  says 
one  shop  manager  to  another,  ^^and  I'll  take 
yours."  And  so  the  fluttering  moths  are 
caught. 

These  tactics  are  followed  not  only  in  New 
York,  but  in  other  large  cities  where  schools" 


140         IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP 


are  advertised;  and  the  crimes  committed 
against  society  and  especially  against  the  inex- 
perienced woman  whose  feet  stray  over  their 
threshold  in  search  of  an  honest  trade  are  des- 
picable. Manicuring,  hair  dressing  and  facial 
massage  are  legitimate  trades,  but  they  have 
been  dragged  into  the  very  mire  by  unscrupu- 
lous workers.  Do  you  want  to  become  one  of 
these? 

Certainly  not!  Then  keep  away  from  the 
'^beauty  school'^  and  learn  your  trade,  if  you 
think  it  is  the  one  trade  for  you,  in  a  more 
honest  and  earnest  fashion. 

In  the  shop  you  must  serve  all  who  come, 
sober  or  otherwise,  able-bodied  or  diseased,  and 
if  the  customer  indulges  in  immoderate,  unjus- 
tified fault-finding,  which  sometimes  amounts 
to  insult,  a  liberal  tip  is  supposed  to  be  the  only 
apology  necessary. 

Understand  I  do  not  say  all  shops  come  under 
this  head.  There  are  a  few  establishments  in 
every  city  where  the  bacilli  of  dishonesty  and 
criminal  carelessness  have  not  yet  found  a 
nesting-place.  But  it  is  the  shop  such  as  I  have 
described  which,  unfortunately,  appeals  most 
generally  to  the  out-of-town  girl,  for  whom  this 
book  has  been  written.  She  knows  nothing  of 
city  life.  She  knows  nothing  of  those  who  man- 
age shops  or  patronize  them.  She  judges  the 
shop  and  its  trade  purely  from  cleverly-written^ 


IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP  141 


prettily-illustrated  booklets,  and  she  has  ro- 
mantic ideas,  gleaned  from  reading  Sunday 
papers,  about  the  matrimonial  opportunities  of 
the  fair  manicurist. 

To  such  girls — and  their  mothers — I  trust  this 
chapter  will  be  a  warning.  From  such  shops 
girls  issue  forth  only  half  trained,  utterly  un- 
fitted to  do  honest  work  and  utterly  unable  to 
carve  a  future  for  themselves  or  to  build  up  the 
one  desirable  line  of  custom — the  house-to- 
house  or  visiting  trade. 

The  house-to-house  worker  is  not  employed  in 
a  shop,  but  calls  on  customers  at  their  homes  or 
hotels,  carrying  her  implements  and  supplies 
in  a  neat  hand-bag,  which  is  made  especially 
for  this  purpose.  Many  of  her  customers  pre- 
fer to  use  their  own  implements,  and  have  their 
own  shampoo  mixtures  and  face  lotions,  for 
they  are  the  better  and  more  refined  class  of 
women  who  do  not  care  to  patronize  the  public 
shop.  They  pay  the  same  fees  that  are  charged 
in  the  shop,  or  more.  The  worker  who  gives 
satisfaction  soon  has  an  established  trade 
among  the  most  desirable  people,  and  is  in  a 
position  to  accept  or  refuse  new  clients. 

The  house-to-house  trade  has  many  advan- 
tages, not  the  least  of  which  is  the  outdoor  ex- 
ercise which  the  visiting  worker  secures  while 
making  her  rounds.  She  is  not  subject  to  the 
petty  politics  and  favoritism  found  in  every 


142         IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP 


shop.  She  can  arrange  her  appointments,  at 
least  in  a  certain  measnre.  to  suit  her  personal 
convenience,  so  as  to  have  time  to  manage  her 
own  household  affairs  if  she  happens  to  be 
married  or  have  an  invalid  dependent  upon  her. 

The  girl  who  thinks  she  would  like  house-to- 
house  work  must  become  a  first-class  manicur- 
ist, for  she  will  appeal  to  the  most  fastidious 
trade.  If  she  lives  in  a  large  city,  she  should 
take  private  lessons  from  the  best  manicurist 
whose  teaching  services  are  available.  These 
lessons  will  cost  her  at  least  two  dollars  each, 
and  if  she  practices  earnestly  between  lessons 
on  her  own  hands  and  those  of  her  family  circle 
or  intimate  friends,  six  lessons  will  be  sufficient. 
This  statement  is  made  on  the  authority  of  a 
thorough  and  successful  manicurist  in  New 
York  City,  who  has  trained  at  least  a  dozen  girls 
for  the  work.  She  insists  that  a  girl  who  can- 
not master  the  theory  of  the  trade  in  six  lessons, 
one  a  week,  and  become  moderately  proficient  in 
the  same  length  of  time  through  honest  prac- 
tice, is  not  suited  to  the  work  and  never  will 
succeed. 

As  soon  as  the  worker  feels  sure  of  her  own 
ability,  she  solicits  trade.  This  may  be  done 
by  sending  out  neatly-printed  cards  or  circu- 
lars, giving  home  address  and  telephone.  A 
telephone  is  essential  to  the  success  of  a  house- 
to-house  worker.    These  may  be  distributed  in 


IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP  143 


family  hotels,  or  boarding-houses,  or  through 
the  mail,  using  the  telephone  directory  for  se- 
curing addresses.  When  the  influence  and  help 
of  a  hotel  manager,  clerk  or  housekeeper  is  de- 
sired, the  new  candidate  for  patronage  general- 
ly keeps  in  order,  free  of  charge,  the  hands  of 
the  person  who  will  be  helpful  to  her.  But  the 
most  desirable  trade  comes  through  the  recom- 
mendations of  satisfied  customers.  The  stran- 
ger in  a  city  will  do  well  to  take  a  room  in  some 
small  hotel  or  large  boarding-house,  where  pro- 
fessional and  business  women  stay  in  large 
numbers.  She  will  soon  build  up  a  good  trade 
among  her  fellow-roomers. 

The  girl  who  lives  in  a  small  city  may  have 
some  difficulty  in  securing  a  reliable  private 
teacher,  simply  because  established  manicur- 
ists do  not  particularly  desire  to  train  competi- 
tors in  a  field  which  they  feel  quite  able  to  fill. 
Such  a  condition  can  be  met  by  having  the 
hands  done  regularly  by  one  manicurist,  time 
and  time  again,  studying  every  movement  of 
the  work  keenly  and  putting  what  is  thus 
learned  through  observation  into  practice  at 
home.  In  addition  to  this,  several  good  books 
on  practical  methods  of  beautifying  the  human 
form  have  been  written  by  experts.  They  can 
be  purchased  at  any  reliable  book-shop  or  or- 
dered through  any  dealer.  The  conscientious 
study  of  these  books  and  the  diligent  observa- 


144        IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP 


tion  of  methods  employed  by  a  first-class  mani- 
curist, together  with  practice,  are  perhaps  the 
best  substitute  for  private  lessons. 

Next  to  this  comes  the  correspondence  school. 
I  fully  realize  that  established  workers  will 
criticize  this  statement  severely,  but  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  girl  who  served  an  ap- 
prenticeship in  a  beauty  shop  ten  or  even  five 
years  ago  was  really  trained  for  the  work,  while 
to-day  the  methods,  unfortunately,  are  those  de- 
scribed in  the  opening  pages  of  this  chapter. 
On  the  other  hand,  I  have  investigated  person- 
ally the  courses  offered  by  two  reliable  corre- 
spondence schools,  and  found  them  thorough, 
accurate,  and  workmanlike.  The  girl  who  can- 
not master  the  trade  by  the  aid  of  such  a  course 
and  diligent  practice  will  never  succeed  as  a 
^'graduate''  from  a  beauty  shop  or  ^'school.'' 
In  fact,  in  this  trade,  as  in  almost  any  line  of 
work,  the  girl  who  really  wills  to  succeed  will 
find  a  way. 

The  manicurist  who  calls  on  transient  cus- 
tomers, such  as  tourists  stopping  at  hotels,  gen- 
erally receives  fifty  cents  per  treatment.  Her 
regular  customers,  whom  she  visits  two  or  three 
times  a  week,  she  charges  at  the  rate  of  thirty- 
five  cents  a  call.  In  addition  to  visiting  cus- 
tomers in  their  homes,  many  house-to-house 
workers  in  large  cities  have  hospital  and  sani- 
tarium practice,  visiting  convalescents  who, 


IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOE  145 


though  they  have  hospital  attendance,  are  glad 
to  have  the  visiting  manicurist  care  for  their 
hands  and  incidentally  keep  them  in  touch  with 
the  busy  world  beyond  the  sanitarium  doors. 
This  sort  of  work  is  secured  through  trained 
nurses,  superintendents  of  hospitals  and  sani- 
tariums, physicians  and  regular  customers  who 
have  friends  recovering  from  illness. 

iWhen  a  girl  has  thoroughly  mastered  mani- 
curing and  secured  an  established  trade,  she 
may  wish  to  study  another  line  of  similar  work, 
particularly  shampooing.  This  is  by  no  means 
a  complicated  branch  of  the  trade  to  learn.  To 
thoroughly  cleanse  the  scalp  without  drenching 
the  customer  or  causing  more  than  a  minimum 
of  discomfort;  to  select  the  correct  shampoo 
mixture  for  the  different  sorts  of  hair,  blonde, 
brunette,  red,  oily  or  dry;  to  dry  the  hair  prop- 
erly ;  to.  singe  it  and  wave  it  if  the  customers  so 
desire,  complete  the  training  of  the  girl  who  an- 
nounces herself  as  ready  to  do  shampooing. 
The  waving  is  not  essential,  but  it  is  often  the 
means  of  holding  a  customer  who  does  not  pat- 
ronize a  professional  hairdresser,  and  who  dis- 
likes the  task  of  waving  her  own  locks.  But  the 
girl  who.  does  waving  only  should  never  exploit 
herself  as  a  hairdresser,  nor  should  she  claim 
ability  as  a  scalp  specialist  until  she  has  been 
trained  thoroughly  and  honestly  for  the  work. 

Shampooing  can  be  mastered  through  prac- 


146         IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP 


tice  and  the  study  of  books  on  the  care  of  the 
hair  or  a  correspondence  course.  For  feuch 
service  customers  pay  from  fifty  cents  to  one 
dollar,  according  to  the  size  of  the  city  and  the 
scale  of  prices  that  prevails. 

The  girl  who  has  both  manicuring  and  sham- 
pooing at  her  command  will  have  plenty  to  do 
among  her  house-to-house  customers.  There  is 
absolutely  no  need  of  further  training,  unless 
she  aims  in  time  to  open  a  shop.  Then  she 
should  save  money  until  she  can  afford  to  study 
with  an  expert  masseuse  the  art  of  massaging 
the  face,  the  scalp  and  the  body.  The  most  suc- 
cessful and  reliable  workers  insist  that  in  this 
day  and  age  it  pays  to  be  a  specialist,  especially 
for  the  house-to-house  trade.  The  girl  who  is 
really  an  expert  manicurist  will  soon  have  her 
engagement  book  full.  The  girl  who  masters 
shampooing  should  follow  this  up  with  scalp 
massage  learned  from  a  recognized  specialist. 

Hairdressing  is  a  trade  quite  apart,  and  the 
girl  who  would  learn  this  should  work  first  in 
a  wig  or  hair-making  shop,  learning  the  compo- 
sition of  hair,  the  art  of  dyeing  it  and  making 
it  into  pieces,  such  as  puffs,  transformations, 
switches,  etc. ;  and  finally  the  very  beautiful  art 
of  dressing  the  hair  to  suit  the  face.  This  trade 
cannot  be  learned  superficially  in  a  beauty  shop 
among  chattering  girls.  It  is  particularly  the 
art  or  trade*  of  a  man,  and  men  are  the  best 


IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOE  147 


Marcel  wavers.  Only  about  one  girl  in  a  thou- 
sand succeeds  as  a  hair-worker  and  dresser,  and 
she  cannot  really  succeed  and  establish  herself 
without  serving  an  honest,  sincere  apprentice- 
ship in  a  wig  shop. 

But  to  return  to  the  house-to-house  manicur- 
ing or  shampooing,  to  which  lines  of  work  I 
hope  most  of  the  girls  interested  in  the  subject 
will  turn  their  attention  and  their  efforts,  let  us 
consider  whether  ymi  are  the  sort  of  girl  to  suc- 
ceed. You  must  be.  healthy,  neat  and  tactful. 
You  must  be  healthy  because  you  are  constantly 
giving  forth  vitality.  Every  woman  who  em- 
ploys you  leans  upon  you  and  asks  for  help. 
Yours  must  be  the  stronger  nature.  Particu- 
larly in  the  care  of  the  hair  and  scalp,  and 
massage,  great  demands  are  made  upon  your 
strength.  A  sickly  or  delicate  looking  girl  does 
not  inspire  confidence  in  her  customers.  You 
must  radiate  strength,  capability,  confidence  in 
yourself  and  your  powers  to  remedy  physical 
defects.  The  anemic  girl  cannot  succeed.  Her 
touch  will  be  uncertain,  trembling,  and  even 
dangerous  in  handling  manicuring  implements. 
The  girl  subject  ta  headaches  cannot  succeed 
because  her  ailment  deprives  her  of  the  nerv- 
ous force  needed  to  inspire  confidence.  The  girl 
with  catarrh  or  with  an  offensive  breath  cannot 
hold  customers.  Therefore,  if  you  would  be  a 
beauty  specialist  start  by  setting  your  body  in 


148        IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP 


perfect  order.  Become  well  and  strong  and 
magnetic. 

The  appearance  of  the  manicurist,  hair- 
dresser or  masseuse  counts  almost  as  heavily; 
for  success  as  that  of  the  probationer  at  the 
training-school  for  nurses  referred  to  in  Chap- 
ter IV.  You  must  be  immaculate.  Your  skin 
must  look  well  cared  for,  well  groomed.  Your 
hair  must  be  clean  and  glossy,  and  it  must  be 
carefully  dressed.  Your  frock,  however  simple, 
must  be  free  from  dust,  spots  and  fringes,  with 
immaculate  linen  at  throat  and  wrists.  Your 
hands  must  be  the  best  advertisement  for  your 
trade.  Many  first-class  workers  wear  a  sort  of 
uniform,  and  at  least  the  shirt-waist  should  be 
of  washable  material.  You  must  give  forth  an 
air  of  trimness,  neatness  and  good  grooming. 

Tact  is  a  most  important  qualification.  The 
manicurist,  the  hairdresser  or  the  masseuse  is 
frequently  the  confidant  of  her  customer.  Your 
relations  during  certain  hours  of  each  week  are 
intimate.  The  girl  who  has  not  the  gift  of  seal- 
ing her  lips,  but  who  is  a  typical  gossip,  soon 
finds  herself  without  trade.  Customers  do  not 
recognize  their  own  folly  in  making  you  their 
confidant.  They  simply  resent  your  violation 
of  their  confidence.  , 

Tact  is  also  required  in  handling  nervous, 
tired,  overworked  women,  who  will  make  up  the 
majority  of  your  patronesses.  The  woman  who 


IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP  149 


tears  herself  away  from  the  turmoil  of  the  social 
season  or  a  mass  of  club  work  to  have  you  undo 
the  mischief  of  overwork,  late  hours,  constant 
nervous  effort,  is  not  apt  to  be  patient  or  easily 
pleased.  You  must  be,  above  all  things,  restful 
and  soothing,  and  this  requires  perfect  physical 
strength,  steady  nerves,  mental  poise  and  tact. 

In  the  matter  of  education,  the  requirements 
are  not  exacting — in  truth,  they  are  not  as 
exacting  as  they  should  be,  considering  the  fact 
that  women  place  themselves  and  their  appear- 
ance at  your  mercy.  Every  member  of  the  hu- 
man body  is  a  delicate  organ  which  you  should 
handle  with  infinite  care  and  conscientiousness. 
A  knowledge  of  English,  careful,  accurate 
speech,  these  you  should  have,  because  your 
choice  of  language  will  betray  to  your  custom- 
ers your  standing,  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  af- 
fect their  confidence  in  you.  Slang,  bad  gram- 
mar, and  a  high-pitched,  unmusical  voice  will 
annoy  women  whom  you  may  hope  to  count 
among  your  customers. 

Before  taking  a  practical  cjourse  in  any  art  of 
beautifying,  study  anatomy,  and  continue  to 
study  it  so  long  as  you  follow  the  trade.  You 
can  never  cease  to  learn  about  the  human  body, 
part  of  which  you  have  undertaken  to  treat. 

Massage,  especially  facial  massage,  is  a  line 
of  work  which  makes  legitimate  appeal  to  the 
girl  who  wishes  to  learn  a  profitable  trade;  but 


150         IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP 


it  requires  a  gift  which  comparatively  few  wom- 
en possess — a  delicate,  soothing  touch.  In  this 
day  of  innumerable  ailments  which  can.  be 
traced  directly  to  tense  or  overtaxed  nerves, 
modern  medical  science  is  treating  more  and 
more  by  manipulation  and  less  and  less  by 
drugs,  and  a  girl  who  can  convince  an  up-to- 
date  doctor  that  she  has  soothing,  healing  quali- 
ties in  her  hands  will  have  no.  difficulty  in  se- 
curing engagements. 

^^But,"  exclaims  the  girl,  ^^how  do  I  know 
that  I  possess  this  gift?'^ 

Test  yourself.  Perhaps  your  mother,  suffers 
iwith  nervous  or  neuralgic  headaches.  Take  her 
into  a  cool,  not  cold,  darkened  room  and  gently 
rub  o«r  smooth  the  forehead,  or  the  base  of  the 
brain,  wherever  the  pain  may  be.  Do  not  talk 
to  her.  Merely  concentrate  your  thought  on 
her  pain  and  your  desire  to  ease  it.  If  she 
gradually  becomes  quiet,  if  her  nerves  stop 
twitching,  and  if  she  feels  an  inclination  to 
sleep,  you  have  the  masseuse's  gift  in  your  fin- 
ger-tips. Or,  if  your  father  has  twisted  his 
ankle  and  is  suffering  pain,  rub  the  affected 
parts  firmly,  steadily,  never  spasmodically.  If 
you  bring  relief  and  in  time  reduce  the  inflam- 
mation you  have  the  soothing  hand. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  you  make  patients  ir- 
ritable and  nervous,  if  they  beg  you  to  leave 


IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP  151 


tliem  alone,  you  lack  the  touch,  and  only  in  cases 
of  rare  persistency  and  study  can-  it  be  acquired. 

Quite  generally  this  soothing  touch  is 
ascribed  to  personal  magnetism.  It  is  really  a 
manifestation  of  a  strength  in  both  nerves  and 
will.  It  indicates  a  firm,  sympathetic  nature 
and  admirable  self-control.  It  is  never  pos- 
sessed by  the  self -centered,  selfish  or  hysterical 
girl.  The  soothing  hand  is  neither  large  nor 
small,  never  damp  or  clammy,  and  always  firm. 

There  is  a  regular  way  of  cultivating  this 
power  known  as  magnetism.  Sit  quietly  until 
you  are  in  absolute  repose.  Eelax  and  drop 
everything.  Then  make  up  your  mind  what  you 
want.  You  want  to  give  forth  help,  to  be  help- 
ful. Out  of  your  calmness  and  strength  you 
want  to  get  the  quality  of  giving  forth  or  ex- 
pressing through  your  hands  your  desire  to  aid 
others.  This  is  not  hypnotism  or  chicanery,  but 
the  influence  of  mind  over  matter.  If  the  mind 
is  cross  or  irritated,  you  cannot  be  helpful.  You 
cannot  have  a  soothing  effect  or  stroke  of  the 
hand  if  your  thoughts  are  jumping  in  a  hundred 
different  directions.  The  soothing  hand  pre- 
supposes mental  concentration. 

Scalp  massage  is  excellent  work  for  the  be- 
ginner. It  requires  only  a  fair  amount  of 
strength,  brings  quick  results  and  is  very  gen- 
erally in  demand.  The  scalp  masseuse  is  really 
a  hair  culturist.  Her  office  is  to  quicken  the  life 


152         IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP 


in  the  Hair,  loosen  the  skin  from  the  scalp, 
stimulate  the  little  cells  in  which  the  hairs  grow 
and  prevent  baldness.  The  tight  scalp  is  a  com- 
mon cause  of  falling  hair,  and  massage  alone 
will  cure  it.  The  scalp  masseuse  generally  goes 
to  the  homes  of  patients,  charging  from  seventy- 
jSve  cents  to  one  dollar  and  a  quarter  for  each 
treatment. 

If  you  take  up  this  work,  study  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  hair.  Familiarize  yourself  with  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  scalps.  Learn  what  the 
oily  hair  needs  and  what  is  best  for  dry,  harsh 
hair.  Keep  a  schedule  or  history  of  every  case 
you  treat,  just  as  the  trained  nurse  watches 
every  change  in  her  patient's  condition  and 
marks  it  in  her  report.  Learn  to  make  your 
own  tonics. 

Scalp  massage  is  particularly  desirable  when 
a  patient  is  recovering  from  fever,  and  in  such 
cases  the  treatments  should  be  given  three  times 
a  week,  gradually  reducing  the  number  and  fre- 
quency as  the  condition  of  the  scalp  improves. 
Scalp  masage  is  also  desirable  for  anemic 
children,  and  a  most  profitable  field  for  the  scalp 
masseuse  is  the  prevention  of  baldness  among 
men.  If  you  have  men  patients,  always  insist 
upon  their  coming  to  your  home,  and  you  are 
quite  within  your  rights  if,  during  the  treat- 
ment, you  have  your  mother  or  a  friend  sit  in 
the  room  with  you.   The  masseuse  who  wishes 


IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP  153 


to  build  up  a  desirable  clientele  will  be  very- 
careful  in  the  matter  of  office  etiquette. 

Facial  massage  is  more  difficult,  but  also 
more  profitable.  When  you  can  make  tbe  mem- 
bers of  your  own  sex  better-looking,  you  can 
command  their  last  dollar.  The  prices  are  much 
the  same  as  for  scalp  massage.  Kemember  that 
the  woman  who  comes  to  you  for  facial  treat- 
ment is  generally  tired  in  body  and  nerves. 
First  make  her  comfortable  and  quiet.  Do  not 
chatter.  The  secret  of  preserving  your  own 
strength  and  reviving  hers  is  quiet  concentra- 
tion on  the  movements  of  your  hands.  If  your 
hands  are  engaged  in  one  direction  and  your 
thoughts  in  another,  you  must  use  double  the 
amount  of  vital  energy  employed  when  you  keep 
quiet. 

Second,  send  your  patient  away  looking  at- 
tractive. It  will  take  a  little  more  time,  but  it 
will  be  casting  bread  upon  the  water  that  is 
bound  to  come  back.  Not  long  ago  a  friend  of 
mine  changed  masseuses.  I  asked  her  why  she 
had  dismissed  Miss  Jones,  who  is  considered  a 
skilled  worker. 

''Oh,''  was  her  reply,  ''I  know  she  had  won- 
derful hands,  but  she  never  bothered  to  take  the 
cream  off  your  face.  You  have  to  clean  up 
your  face,  powder  and  fix  yourself  generally. 
Miss  Green,  my  new  girl,  leaves  you  feeling  so 
cumfy.    She  washes  off  the  cream,  powders 


154 


IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOE 


your  face,  perhaps  she  touches  up  your  eye- 
brows, and  smooths  you  down  generally,  and 
you  go  out  looking  so  fit  that  every  one  remarks 
on  your  appearance." 

Whose  customers,  think  you,  are  the  better 
advertisers  for  the  masseuse's  skill?  It  takes 
but  a  few  minutes  to  groom  your  patient,  and 
you  have  her  bound  by  your  chains.  Just  such 
little  things  as  these  make  for  success. 

While  the  primary  virtue  of  massage  is  giv- 
ing forth  strength  and  relief  from  pain,  the 
facial  masseuse  must  make  her  patients  feel 
^^better-looking."  She  must  take  a  vital  inter- 
est in  the  appearance  of  each  patient  and  must 
not  hesitate  to  suggest  in  a  tactful  way  what 
would  improve  the  customer's  appearance. 

Another  important  point  for  the  house-to- 
house  masseuse  to  observe  is  orderliness.  Un- 
less her  customer  has  plenty  of  servants,  the 
masseuse  heats  the  water  needed  for  steaming 
the  face  and  waits  upon  herself.  When  the 
treatment  is  over,  she  should  put  the  basins, 
tea-kettle,  towels,  etc.,  in  their  right  places,  and 
straighten  up  the  toilet  table.  It  is  the  work  of 
only  a  few  moments  to  stretch  the  wet  towels 
and  cloths  to  dry  in  the  bathroom,  to  put  the 
tea-kettle  or  basin  in  place,  and  to  cover  the 
cold-cream  jar  and  powder-box,  while  the  cus- 
tomer is  enjoying  the  restful  effects  of  he,r 
treatment.   When  that  customer  must  pick  up 


IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP 


155 


after  the  departed  masseuse,  she  is  very  apt  to 
lose  some  of  the  soothing  effects  of  the  treat- 
ment and  to  set  the  worker  down  as  careless  and 
disorderly.  I  have  known  more  than  one 
masseuse  to  lose  good  customers  just  through 
this  little  fault  of  untidiness.  I  admit  that 
' '  cleaning  up  "  is  not  nominated  in  the  bond,  but 
it  is  one  of  the  little  things  that  hold  custom. 

Body  massage  is  the  most  complicated  of  all, 
and  must  be  studied  faithfully  on  scientific  lines. 
It  is  employed  for  the  relief  of  rheumatism,  bad 
circulation,  sciatica,  nervousness  and  all  dis- 
eases arising  from  congestion.  It  is  invaluable, 
particularly  in  the  case  of  children,  for  liver 
and  bowel  trouble,  and  it  is  employed  to  re- 
duce inflammation  and  swellings  from  strains, 
bruises  and  abcesses,  where  there  is  no  skin 
abrasion.  Engagements  are  secured  through 
physicians  in  private  homes  and  in  sanitariums, 
particularly  those  patronized  by  nervous  pa- 
tients or  chronic  invalids.  An  expert  masseuse 
recommended  by  a  physician  of  standing,  re- 
ceives as  high  as  five  dollars  an  hour,  but  she 
can  take  only  two  or  three  cases  in  a  day  at  the 
most.  Training  for  this  high-grade  work  must 
be  secured  through  private  lessons  or  in  a  hos- 
pital training-school,  in  connection  with  special 
work  in  anatomy. 

In  the  preceding  pages  I  have  tried  to  show 
to  girls  who  have  never  given  the  trade  of  the 


156        IN  THE  BEAUTY  SHOP 


beauty  specialist"  more  than  a  superficial 
study  the  grave  importance  of  really  being  a 
specialist,  not  a  general  worker.  There  is 
neither  large  salary  nor  dignity  in  the  general 
work  of  the  '^beauty  shop/'  and  there  is  much 
danger  for  the  American  girPs  standard  of 
right  living  and  honest  working. 


CHAPTER  XII 


THE  GIRL  IN  THE  FACTORY 

In  the  vocabulary  of  those  who  write  and  lec- 
ture on  the  self-supporting  woman,  there  is  no 
more  misleading  phrase  than  ^Hhe  poor  factory 
girl/^  The  self-respecting,  alert  factory- 
worker — and  there  are  thousands  upon  thou- 
sands of  such  workers  in  the  United  States — 
neither  asks  nor  merits  pity.  Many  of  them 
make  more  money  in  a  week  than  the  average 
mediocre  stenographer  makes  in  a  month* 
Thousands  of  them  perform  less  exhausting 
work  than  the  girl  who  stands  behind  a  counter. 
The  vast  majority  of  tliem  have  union  hours, 
and  each  year  officials  get  closer  and  closer  to 
the  heart  of  factory  life,  enforcing  laws  of  sani- 
tation and  human  safety. 

When  the  factory  girls  have  a  grievance  or 
are  threatened  with  a  reduction  of  wages,  they 
do  not  ask  rich  and  charitably-inclined  women 
to  open  homes"  where  they  can  live  on  a  semi- 
charity  basis.  They  appoint  committees,  confer 
with  committees  from  unions  for  men,  and  arbi- 

157 


158    THE  GIRL  IN  THE  FACTORY 


trate  the  case  with  their  employers.  If  times 
are  ^ ^panicky,"  they  may  have  to  work  on  part 
time,  or  mills  may  be  closed  for  weeks  or 
months;  but  saleswomen  and  stenographers 
sutfer  the  same  financial  reverses  in  hard  times. 

The  girl  who  learns  any  trade  in  a  factory 
soon  finds  that  this  knowledge  is  like  a  certain 
amount  of  capital  on  which  she  can  always 
draw  for  an  income.  If  she  is  an  expert  worker 
and  she  does  not  like  the  methods  of  her  em- 
ployers, she  can  seek  other  work  among  com- 
petitive firms.  If  she  requires  a  change  of  cli- 
mate or  feels  the  spirit  of  wanderlust  stirring 
within  her,  she  can  cross  the  continent  if  need 
be,  and  feel  reasonably  certain  that  wherever 
she  finds  a  similar  factory,  there  will  be  an  open- 
ing for  her  skilled  hands. 

Among  my  self-supporting  correspondents 
during  the  past  ten  years,  hundreds  have  been 
factory-workers  who  have  used  their  knowledge 
of  trades,  their  powers  of  observation  and  the 
acquaintance  gained  in  the  despised  factory 
life  to  accomplish  certain  long-cherished  ambi- 
tions. One  of  the  best  traveling  saleswomen  in 
the  country  to-day  represents  a  great  corset- 
making  firm  in  whose  employ  she  started  as  an 
apprentice.  Five  girls  who  started  together  in 
a  stocking  factory  now  have  a  plant  of  their 
own,  and  are  making  a  comfortable,  independ- 
ent living  therefrom.   The  head  of  the  Young 


THE  GIRL  IN  THE  FACTORY,  159 


Women's  Christian  Association  factory  work  in 
an  Eastern  city  was  herself  an  operator  in  a 
shirt-waist  factory,  saw  the  need  of  welfare 
work  among  foreign-born  girls,  studied  prac- 
tical philanthropy,  and  became  a  successful 
social  worker.  A  woman  who  designed  trim- 
ming for  a  New  York  manufacturer  of  tailored 
suits  for  women  is  now  the  head  of  an  import- 
ing firm  which  deals  in  laces,  trimmings  and 
buttons. 

True,  girls  toil  year  after  year  for  mere  sti- 
pends, in  factories  which  require  large  num- 
bers of  purely  mechanical  workers  to  feed  ma- 
chines or  perform  the  simplest  of  hand  tasks. 
But  these  girls,  if  placed  in  offices,  would  ad- 
dress envelopes  or  do  filing  or  telephone  oper- 
ating at  four,  five  or  six  dollars  a  week  to  the 
end  of  their  business  careers. 

As  an  instance,  take  the  case  of  a  young  Hun- 
garian girl  who,  on  her  arrival  in  America, 
found  work  in  a  box  factory  at  four  dollars  a 
week.  She  was  extremely  deft,  and  became  one 
of  the  best  piece-workers  in  the  shop,  her  earn- 
ings varying  from  nine  to  twelve  dollars  a  week. 
Foreign  girls  worked  all  around  her,  the  fac- 
tory's manager  kept  within  the  law  but  no  more, 
and  the  environment  was  not  pleasant.  The 
girl  had  to  wear  washable  clothes  to  work,  be- 
cause of  the  glue. 

She  watched  clerks  and  stenographers  whom 


16Q    THE  GIEL  IN  THE  FACTOEY; 


slie  met  going  to  and  from  work,  in  Inncb.  honrs 
and  at  the  settlement  lionse  where  she  spent  her 
evenings.  She  grew  to  hate  the  factory  and  de- 
termined to  become  a  stenographer.  By  day 
she  worked  at  her  old  task  of  making  boxes ;  by 
night  she  studied  English.  And  always  she 
saved  every  penny,  nntil  she  could  leave  the 
factory  and  enter  a  business  college,  where  she 
studied  like  the  personification  of  concentra- 
tion. It  was  a  laudable  ambition,  but  no  one 
told  her  what  the  poor  girl  did  not  realize — 
that  stenography  cannot  be  built  on  a  faulty 
education,  and  this  girl  had  not  been  educated 
in  either  her  own  language  or  in  English.  She 
mastered  stenography,  but  her  knowledge  of 
English  remained  defective.  She  could  secure 
no  position. 

She  went  back  to  the  school  for  more  instruc- 
tion in  English.  Her  funds  ran  low.  Her  rela- 
tives, whose  daughters  were  doing  well  in  the 
factories,  felt  no  sympathy  for  her  and  refused 
financial  aid.  Charitable  women  helped  her  in 
the  matter  of  clothes  and  incidental  expenses, 
but  no  one  asked  her  how  she  was  living.  The 
truth  was  that  she  was  very  nearly  starving* 
And  when  at  last  she  mastered  English  and  was 
eligible  for  a  position  as  stenographer  at  seven 
or  eight  dollars  a  week,  she  was  so  broken  in 
health  and  nerves  that  she  was  mentally  unfit 
to  cope  with  the  petty  annoyances  of  office  life. 


THE  GIRL  IN  THE  FACTOEY  161 


Employer  after  employer  had  to  dismiss  her, 
and  eventually  a  charitably  inclined  woman 
sent  her  to  the  conntry  to  recuperate.  After 
eight  years  of  this  precarious  existence,  she 
has  a  position  where  she  earns  ten  dollars  a 
week,  but  her  ambition  is  broken,  her  economic 
future  is  most  uncertain. 

Had  she  given  to  her  factory  work  the  same 
enthusiasm  and  concentration  that  she  devoted 
to  the  mistaken  vocation  of  stenography,  she 
would  have  become  forewoman  or  perhaps  a 
partner  in  a  small  factory. 

Gradually  the  American  girl  is  leaving  the 
factory  and  its  trade  to  her  foreign  cousin.  And 
for  what?  For  less  money  and  equally  hard 
work  in  a  store  or  office.  The  girl  who  cannot 
advance  in  a  factory  will  not  advance  in  a  store 
or  office,  where  she  is  paid  less  money  for  her 
time  and  indifferent  services.  The  girl  who  is 
purely  a  working  machine,  without  executive 
ability,  without  the  alertness  and  ambition  that 
make  for  success  in  any  line  of  work,  will  earn 
more  money  in  a  factory  than  in  a  store,  be- 
cause in  salesmanship,  above  almost  any  line  of 
work,  personality  and  enthusiasm  must  be 
exerted. 

Owners  and  managers  of  factories  speak 
with  great  bitterness  of  the  American  girls  who 
could  earn  twelve  or  fifteen  dollars  a  week  at 
their  looms  or  machines,  who  are  standing  be- 


162    THE  GIRL  IN  THE  FACTOEY 


hind  counters  for  five  and  six  dollars  a  week. 
Said  one  employer  whose  factory  occupies  a 
great  loft  far  above  the  heat  and  roar  of  the 
city  streets,  and  whose  girls,  mostly  foreigners, 
earn  from  ten  to  fourteen  dollars  a  week : 

^^Five  years  ago  the  names  on  our  payroll 
were  largely  Irish,  German  or  English.  To-day 
they  are  almost  exclusively  Slav.  And  in  that 
department  store  on  the  next  corner  you  will 
find  girls  standing  on  their  feet  from  8:15 
to  6  every  day  for  seven  dollars  a  week.  The 
air  in  that  store  is  foul,  the  heat  in  summer 
maddening.  The  rest-rooms  for  the  girls  are  a 
mockery,  located  in  a  dingy  basement  with  elec- 
tric light  and  foul  air.  Up  here  our  girls  earn 
a  minimum  of  ten  dollars  a  week,  they  sit  at 
machines  run  by  electricity.  The  air  is  pure, 
our  lunchroom  is  a  model  one,  and  we  are  think- 
ing of  putting  our  factory  on  a  profit-sharing 
basis. 

^^The  root  of  the  trouble  is  that  oft-quoted 
phrase,  the  poor  factory  girl,  and  the  subse- 
quent feeling  of  caste  which  is  fatal  to  the  earn- 
ing capacity  of  the  American  girl  who  must  be 
wholly  or  partly  self-supporting.  She  would 
rather  be  a  cheap  clerk  or  stenographer  than 
lose  what  she  considers  social  standing  by  work- 
ing in  a  factory.  With  this  false  standard  of 
pride  she  ekes  out  a  miserable  existence.  She 
cannot  save  because  she  has  nothing  to  lay 


THE  GIRL  IN  THE  FACTORY  163 


aside.  She  lives  from  hand  to  mouth  and  be- 
comes a  creature  of  expedients,  in  nowise  fitted 
for  the  wife  of  an  American  man  of  moderate 
means, 

^'Our  girls  have  bank  accounts,  they  live  witli 
their  parents,  not  at  ^ homes,'  and  before  they 
are  twenty-five  most  of  them  marry,  with  habits 
of  thrift  instilled  in  them.  No  girl  can  be  thrif- 
ty when  she  has  no  meal  insured  beyond  what 
her  current  week's  salary  can  pay  for." 

This  interview  is  offered  for  the  particular 
help  of  the  girl  who,  having  completed  her  ele- 
mentary or  grammar  grades  in  the  public 
schools,  is  hesitating  between  what  is  known  as 
^ ^business  career,"  i.e.,  cheap  office  work  or 
cheaper  salesmanship,  and  entering  a  factory  to 
learn  some  form  of  skilled  labor.  It  is  quite  true 
that  foreign  girls  have  almost  monopolized  fac- 
tory work,  but  this  is  because  the  American  girl 
has  permitted  the  condition  to  arise.  It  is  also 
true  that  many  of  the  surroundings  of  factory 
life  are  distasteful  to  the  American  girl;  but 
what  of  impudent  customers,  overbearing,  un- 
just floor-walkers  in  stores,  and  fault-finding 
superiors  in  big  offices?  For  every  factory 
that  defies  the  laws  of  sanitation  and  decency, 
there  is  a  department  store  which  does  the 
same  thing.  For  every  manufacturer  who  main- 
tains a  system  of  fines  and  unjust  withholding 
of  wages,  there  is  a  superintendent  of  employees 


164    THE  GIEL  IN  THE  FACTOEY 


in  a  dry-goods  or  a  department  store  who  is 
past-master  of  the  same  tricks.  And  most  cer- 
tainly I  should  urge  the  young  woman  who  lives 
in  a  factory  community  to  investigate  the  con- 
ditions and  openings  for  work  in  the  local  con- 
cerns before  she  puts  her  last  penny  into  a 

business  training"  built  upon  an  elementary 
knowledge  of  English. 

To  the  girl  seeking  factory  work  in  sanitary 
surroundings  the  up-to-date  plants  of  pure- 
food  packers  offer  many  attractions.  To  be 
sure,  it  is  claimed  that  the  model  plants  main- 
tained by  many  of  these  manufacturers  are  part 
of  the  advertising  methods  of  the  firm,  but  this 
does  not  alter  the  fact  that  the  workers  partici- 
pate in  the  benefits  of  pure  food,  cleanly  envi- 
ronment and  self-respect  which  result.  At  one 
of  the  factories  maintained  by  a  cracker  and 
biscuit  trust,  I  found  girls  working  at  wages 
from  five  to  twelve  dollars  a  week  in  almost 
ideal  surroundings,  and  let  me  add  that  most 
of  these  girls  were  American-born.  Every 
room  in  which  I  found  girls  employed  was  spot- 
less, with  dust  absorbers,  pure  air  and  plenty 
of  it.  At  various  points  of  the  building  were 
splendid  lavatories  with  enameled  basins,  tubs 
and  shower-baths,  a  matron  in  attendance,  cots 
for  girls  taken  ill  at  their  work,  an  emergency 
closet  with  simple  remedies  aplenty,  and  an  at- 
tractive lunchroom.    These  girls  wear  uni- 


THE  GIRL  IN  THE  FACTORY  165 


forms,  purchased  by  themselves  and  laundered 
by  the  company.  Their  work  is  monotonous. 
Most  of  them  perform  some  portion  of  the  pack- 
ing process,  feeding  pasteboard  to  machines 
that  turn  out  boxes,  closing  the  boxes,  labeling 
them,  etc. 

In  another  Pennsylvania  food  plant,  I  found 
girls  in  immaculate  uniforms  sorting  and  pre- 
paring fruits  and  vegetables,  sealing  and  label- 
ing cans,  packing,  etc.  These  girls  often  earn 
no  more  than  five  dollars  a  week,  but  they  would 
earn  no  more  in  stores.  If  they  are  capable  of 
earning  higher  wages,  they  are  paid  them  right 
there  in  that  factory. 

These  girls  have  model  rest-rooms  and  lava- 
tories, and  are  furnished  with  clubrooms,  a 
gymnasium  and  an  auditorium  where  dances 
and  other  entertainments  are  given  after  work- 
ing hours.  ;  - 

In  a  mid-West  city  I  found  a  soap  factory 
with  as  fine  a  body  of  women  employees  as  you 
will  see  anywhere  in  America,  because  they  work 
on  the  profit-sharing  plan,  and  have  a  civil  serv- 
ice system  of  advancement.  In  a  New  York 
City  shirt-waist  factory  I  found  Irish  and 
American  girls  working  under  most  comfortable 
conditions,  and  apparently  content  with  their 
surroundings  and  their  earnings.  Just  two 
blocks  on  the  other  side  of  Broadway  I  found 
a  typical  sweatshop,  the  workers  strained,  in- 


166    THE  GIRL  IN  THE  FACTORY 


tent,  plainly  underpaid,  underfed  Polish  girls, 
all  of  them  sewing  on  the  type  of  shirt-waist 
that  makes  the  Monday  morning  bargain  sales 
possible. 

There  are  factories  and  factories.  In  New 
England,  there  are  cotton  mills  where  500  girls 
work  in  one  room,  where  dust  and  vapor  are  so 
thick  that  they  form  a  peculiar  haze.  In  Cali- 
fomia,  fruit  packers  work  under  ideal  condi- 
tions. On  the  lower  end  of  Manhattan  Island 
I  visited  a  candy  factory  which  a  few  days 
later  was  raided  by  the  municipal  food  inspec- 
tors and  whose  owner  was  heavily  fined.  Here 
the  girls  worked  in  a  fire-trap  of  a  building,  with 
halls  dark  as  midnight  and  smells  foul  enough 
to  outweigh  that  of  the  sickeningly-sweet  choco- 
late. A  fifteen-minute  ride  on  the  elevated 
road  brought  me  to  a  huge  loft,  where  a  hun- 
dred girls  and  a  few  men  made  candy  in  rooms 
that  would  have  put  the  average  fussy  house- 
wife to  shame. 

Very  often  factories  are  what  employees 
make  them.  Many  firms  who  have  tried  to  im- 
prove the  environment  of  their  employees  have 
been  discouraged  by  the  abuse  of  their  proper- 
ty by  the  very  employees  they  were  trying  to 
help. 

It  is  impossible  in  this  space  to  discuss  the 
economic  position  of  the  woman  factory-worker. 
Investigators  have  proven  that  her  presence  in 


THE  GIRL  IN  THE  FACTORY  167 


the  factory  world  has  reduced  wages  and  driven 
expert  male  workers  out  of  the  trades.  On  the 
other  hand,  she  has  also  reduced  hours  and  bet- 
tered conditions  in  factories.  But  after  all, 
the  most  important  fact  is  that  she  has  arrived 
and  is  monopolizing  many  lines  of  work,  blaz- 
ing the  way  for  the  rising  generation  of  girls 
who,  with  little  education^  must  become  self- 
supporting. 

It  is  impossible,  also,  within  this  limited 
space,  to  particularize  about  even  a  fair  pro- 
portion of  the  trades  in  which  girls  find  em- 
ployment and  quick  advancement,  but  a  few 
general  figures  furnished  by  employers  and  con- 
firmed by  workers  may  be  of  interest. 

Many  of  the  candy  manufacturers  have 
schools  for  girls  with  a  system  of  civil  service 
promotion.  Girls  armed  with  board  of  health, 
department  of  education  or  child  labor  law 
certificates,  according  to  the  municipal  govern- 
ment, are  taken  as  apprentices  while  quite 
young.  They  start  at  three  or  four  dollars  a 
week,  and  if  deft  are  soon  advanced  to  five  dol- 
lars a  week.  Experts  in  the  factory  seldom 
earn  more  than  eight  dollars  a  week,  but  manu- 
facturers who  also  manage  retail  stores  pro- 
mote their  most  intelligent  girls  to  the  position 
of  saleswoman  in  the  retail  store,  which  may 
lead  to  the  post  of  head  of  stock.  The  girl  who 


168    THE  GIEL  IN  THE  FACTOEY 


has  worked  in  the  factory  is  given  the  prefer- 
ence in  the  store. 

In  all  large  cities  where  millinery  centers 
may  be  found,  artificial  flower  factories  also 
exist.  Italian  girls  crowd  many  of  these  fac- 
tories and  much  sweatshop  work  is  done,  but 
factories  are  also  found  in  fine  lofts,  with  good 
light,  exhaust  fans  and  plenty  of  elbow-room 
for  the  workers,  and  American  workers  to  boot. 
Here  the  maximum  earnings  are  ten  dollars  a 
week,  unless  a  girl  becomes  forewoman,  when 
her  salary  is  determined  by  her  value  to  the 
concern.  An  apprentice  can  always  secure  a 
chance  at  one  of  these  factories  at  the  opening 
of  the  rush  season. 

The  bonnaz  machines  for  which  operators  are 
always  in  demand  are  features  of  every  factory 
which  turns  out  upholstery  supplies,  scarfs, 
draperies,  portieres,  table-covers,  etc.  This  ma- 
chine does  braiding,  outlining  and  various 
forms  of  fancy  stitchery,  employees  generally 
doing  piece-work  and  earning,  when  expert,  fif- 
teen dollars  a  week.  Young  girls  start  here 
knotting  fringe  and  doing  other  finishing  work. 
The  girl  who  shows  adaptability  and  eagerness 
to  learn  is  soon  given  a  chance  at  a  machine, 
and  these  apprentices  make  about  seven  dollars 
a  week,  their  earnings  increasing  with  their 
dexterity. 

In  the  hosiery  factories  for  which  Philadel- 


THE  GIRL  IN  THE  FACTOEY  169 


phia  is  noted,  the  girls  start  at  three  dollars 
a  week  in  what  is  known  as  the  finishing  depart- 
ment, stamping  and  packing  the  stockings.  The 
knitters  are  the  highest-priced  workers,  their 
minimmn  earnings  being  ten  dollars  a  week. 
The  piece-worker  is  always  a  law  nnto  herself, 
but  often  the  rapid  workers  pay  the  price  of 
their  big  records  with  nervous  prostration  or 
other  ailments  peculiar  to  abnormal  concentra- 
tion. 

In  Pittsburgh,  the  center  of  the  cheap  cigar  or 
stogy  industry,  girls  work  by  the  thousands  at 
this  trade  alone,  earning  six  dollars  per  week. 
In  the  cotton  mills  of  New  England  you  will 
find  as  many  thousand  more  weavers  working 
for  an  average  of  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  day  or 
nine  dollars  per  week.  Yet  there  have  been 
cases  in  all  these  factories  where  girls  have 
doubled  the  average  wages. 

Operators  in  suit  and  waist  factories  do  piece- 
work principally,  and  as  a  rule  make  twelve  dol- 
lars per  week.  In  underwear  factories  the  in- 
experienced worker  is  first  employed  at  sewing 
on  buttons,  running  ribbon  through  beading, 
pressing,  etc.,  and  makes  not  more  than  two  or 
three  dollars  per  week.  Tucking,  joining  tuck- 
ing to  insertion,  sewing  on  lace,  etc.,  are  all  done 
by  machine  and  paid  for  by  the  yard.  At  first 
a  girl  earns  no  more  at  this  than  by  sewing  on 
buttons,  but  very  soon  she  works  up  to  six  dol- 


170    THE  GIEL  IN  THE  FACTOEY 


lars  per  week.  From  this  work  she  passes  on 
to  joining  garments  and  adjusting  trimming  by 
machine,  and  at  this  an  experienced  hand  makes 
from  twelve  to  fourteen  dollars  per  week.  The 
girl  who  can  embroidery  neatly  can  secure  work 
in  shirt  factories  embroidering  initials  and 
monograms  on  custom-made  shirts. 

The  girl  in  search  of  this  work  must  watch  the 
^^want  ad."  columns  of  the  daily  papers  and 
haunt  the  neighborhood  where  such  factories 
are  to  be  found.  Here  she  will  find  signs  ^^Ex- 
perienced Operators  Wanted/'  or  ^^Appren- 
tices or  Learners  Wanted."  She  is  always  safe 
in  applying  where  she  sees  the  latter  sign.  Best 
of  all  is  the  acquaintance  of  some  one  already 
employed  in  the  factory,  who  will  not  only  let 
her  know  when  an  opening  occurs,  but  will  help 
her  during  the  first  weeks  of  her  apprentice- 
ship. 

In  suit,  shirt-waist  and  skirt  factories  girls 
are  employed  as  sorters.  That  is,  they  take  the 
various  pieces  of  cloth  from  the  cutters,  assort- 
ing sleeve-pieces  and  various  parts  of  the  waist 
according  to  size,  34,  36,  38,  etc.  This  develops 
the  bump  of  accuracy.  The  minimum  salary  is 
generally  three  dollars,  the  maximum  eight  dol- 
lars. There  is  little  chance  for  advancement. 
In  factories  handling  cloth  suits,  men  are  em- 
ployed largely  as  operators,  but  girls  are  em- 
ployed to  sew  on  trimming,  run  buttonhole  ma- 


THE  GIRL  IN  THE  FACTORY]  171 


chines  and  do  much  of  the  lighter  operating. 
Wages  are  about  the  same  as  at  white-goods 
factories,  and  all  this  is  piece-work,  depending, 
therefore,  on  the  energy  and  concentration  of 
the  operator.  Machinery  is  now  run  by  elec- 
tricity. 

Box  factories  give  employment  to  many  girls, 
but  the  rooms  are,  as  a  rule,  badly  arranged 
and  illy  ventilated.  Girls  may  start  at  this 
work  as  pasters,  i.e.,  binding  corners  and  edges 
of  boxes  with  pasteboard  tstrips.  They  gener- 
ally work  two  weeks  for  nothing,  then  earn 
about  three  dollars  per  week,  and  even  an  ex- 
pert cannot  make  more  than  nine  dollars.  The 
glue  workers,  who  cover  boxes  with  fancy  paper, 
make  as  high  as  ten  dollars  per  week,  but  must 
work  in  very  hot  rooms  with  hot  glue.  These 
are  merely  sample  lines  of  work  and  indicate 
salary  paid. 

Feather  making  and  curling  form  an  excel- 
lent trade  for  deft-fingered  girls.  The  oper- 
ator starts  at  three  dollars  per  week,  scraping 
marabout  or  French  turkey  down.  Next  she 
sews  on  the  down  and  earns  six  dollars  per 
week.  From  this  she  advances  to  ostrich 
feather-making,  at  which  she  earns  as  high  as 
eighteen  dollars  per  week.  An  expert  curler 
commands  the  best  salary  of  all,  about  twenty 
dollars  per  week. 

These  fragmeijtary  figures  from  payrolls  go 


172    ,THE  GIRL  IN  THE  FACTORY 


to  prove  that  while  there  is  no  great  future  in 
factory  work,  save  for  the  exceptional  girl  who 
would  carve  for  herself  a  successful  business 
career  wherever  she  started,  factory  work 
promises  a  fair  wage  during  the  seven  years 
which  is  the  average  period  of  work  for  girls 
and  women  the  country  over.  And  for  the 
woman  who  works  no  longer  than  that,  it  pro- 
vides equally  good  pay  in  equally  sanitary  sur- 
roundings as  does  stenography  or  salesmanship, 
the  usual  alternative  with  the  average  girl. 


CHAPTER  XIII 


SOCIAL  SERVICE 

Modern  pliilanthropy  presents  a  congenial 
method  of  self-support  for  educated,  ambitious, 
earnest  women.  The  organized  uplift  move- 
ment, generally  known  as  social  work,  which  is 
found  in  every  industrial  center,  offers  a  field 
in  which  the  intelligent,  tactful  woman  may 
reap  the  double  harvest  of  a  fair  livelihood  and 
the  knowledge  that  the  world  will  be  the  better 
for  her  having  worked  in  it.  It  is  not  work 
for  the  very  young  girl. 

During  recent  years  philanthropy  has  been 
reduced  to  a  science.  Charity  is  dispensed  by 
methods  as  business-like  as  those  employed  by 
any  great  corporation.  Time  was  when  women 
who  had  failed  at  almost  everything  else  were 
sent  out  as  missionaries  to  foreign  lands,  to  the 
poor  whites  of  the  South,  to  the  neglected  In- 
dians of  the  West,  and  to  the  slum  dwellers  of 
the  great  cities.  ^^GenteeP'  women  with  social 
backing  and  family  name  were  given  the  prefer- 
ence as  managers  of  homes  for  the  dependent  or 

173 


174  SOCIAL  SEEVICE 

refuges  for  girls;  while  the  wealthy  employed 
as  their  almoners  perfectly  ladylike  relatives 
who  had  to  be  supported,  anyhow,  and  might  as 
well  be  paid  a  salary. 

The  untrained,  tactless  missionaries  accom- 
plished little  bej^ond  making  trouble  for  am- 
bassadors and  consuls  in  the  foreign  countries 
to  which  they  were  sent.  The  genteel"  super- 
intendents of  homes  and  refuges  failed  because 
they  did  not  know  how  to  organize  and  manage 
affairs. 

Then  a  few  men  and  women  brave  enough  to 
face  the  storm  of  public  outcry  against  salaried 
positions  in  charity  work  began  their  struggle 
to  put  philanthropy  on  a  business  basis.  Eich 
men  and  women  were  asked  to  help  the  poor 
and  needy  only  through  these  charity  associa- 
tions, whose  members  had  the  courage  and  the 
time  and  the  working  force  to  investigate 
claims. 

Such  was  the  quiet,  unostentatious  beginning 
of  the  associated  charity  work  which  is  now 
found  in  every  city  of  any  size  in  the  United 
States.  So  immediate  were  the  results  from 
this  movement,  so  quick  were  business  men  and 
women  to  grasp  the  municipal  or  civic  possi- 
bilities of  such  an  association,  that  not  only  is 
organized  charity  receiving  general  support 
from  the  masses  who  can  give  small  sums,  but 
men  and  women  of  great  wealth  are  organizing 


SOCIAL  SERVICE 


175 


their  benefactions  on  similar  lines.  The  Russell 
Sage  Foundation  is  as  well  organized  as  any 
life-insurance  office  or  great  department  store. 
The  Carnegie  benefactions  are  handled  by  di- 
rectors, committees  and  paid  investigators;  so 
are  most  of  the  charities  in  which  John  D. 
Rockefeller  is  interested.  The  churches  have 
fallen  into  line,  establishing  schools  where  mis- 
sionaries, deaconesses,  neighborhood  workers, 
etc.,  are  trained. 

Just  as  it  takes  capable  men  and  women  to 
conduct  great  enterprises,  so  does  it  require  high- 
grade  workers,  men  and  women  of  executive 
ability  and  special  training,  to  manage  the  great 
charity  movements  of  the  hour,  to  dispense  the 
magnificent  philanthropies  of  the  American 
multi-millionaire.  There  must  be  stenographers 
to  handle  correspondence,  investigators  to  re- 
lieve the  poor  and  encourage  the  wretched, 
studious  workers  to  dig  below  the  surface  in- 
dications of  squalor  and  filth  and  reach  the 
cause,  and  head  workers  of  peculiar  executive 
ability  to  sift  the  reports  brought  in  by  investi- 
gators, and  outline  a  more  vigorous  campaign 
as  the  world's  needs  are  indicated  by  the  re- 
ports. 

I  have  emphasized  the  need  for  trained  work- 
ers, not  untrained  enthusiasts,  at  the  very  be- 
ginning of  this  chapter,  because  I  do  not  want  to 
deceive  any  girl  who  feels  that  she  must  have 


176  SOCIAL  SEEVICE 


something  to  do  to-morrow  or  next  day  which 
will  bring  in  immediate  returns.  This  chapter 
on  philanthropy  as  a  profession  is  written  espe- 
cially for  the  girl  of  education  who  has  time 
and  money  to  specialize  for  social  service  work. 
To  this  explanation  I  want  to  add  something 
more,  the  statement  that  not  every  woman,  how- 
ever ambitious,  is  suited  to  social  service  work. 

She  must  have  reasonably  good  health — at 
least  no  organic  trouble.  I  use  the  word  rea- 
sonably'^ advisedly,  for  often  the  girl  who  is 
breaking  down  under  the  routine  of  office  work 
or  confinement  of  desk,  counter  or  schoolroom, 
practically  renews  her  youth  and  regains  her 
strength  in  social  work,  which  generally  includes 
much  outdoor  life. 

She  must  have  tact.  She  will  need  this  in 
securing  funds  from  the  rich,  co-operation  from 
the  influential,  and  results  from  the  poor  to 
whom  she  dispenses  charity. 

She  must  be  open-minded  enough  to  suspend 
judgment  in  a  case  until  she  has  learned  every 
side  of  it,  and  yet  she  must  be  resourceful 
enough  to  act  on  her  own  responsibility  when 
emergency  demands.  She  must  not  be  swayed 
by  personalities — ^judging  the  need,  not  the  in- 
dividual— and  she  must  not  expect  gratitude. 

She  must  be  willing  to  start  for  a  mere  pit- 
tance and  prove  her  worth  to  those  above  her  in 
authority. 


SOCIAL  SERVICE  177 


She  must  be  willing,  nay,  anxious,  to  study 
continually,  for  nearly  every  case  will  present  a 
different  sociological  problem  springing  from  a 
different  sociological  evil,  and  it  is  her  work  not 
to  relieve  the  single  case  alone,  but  to  do  her 
part  in  reducing  the  evil  which  lies  behind  the 
case. 

The  work  itself  is  varied.  Here  are  some  of 
the  positions  open  to  those  who  desire  to  engage 
in  it: 

Expert  visitors  for  charity  organization  so- 
cieties or  other  charitable  institutions.  Inves- 
tigators of  social  conditions  or  institutions. 
Matrons  or  administrators  in  institutional 
work.  Financial  secretaries  for  private  indi- 
viduals or  societies.  Inspectors  (tenement 
houses,  factories,  etc.).  Executive  secretaries 
of  educational  or  philanthropic  societies.  Pro- 
bation officers.  Head  workers  and  assistants  in 
social  settlements,  institutional  churches,  wel- 
fare departments  of  manufacturing  and  mer- 
cantile establishments.  The  public  service, 
State  and  municipal,  especially  those  branches 
which  deal  with  public  welfare,  such  as  health, 
charities  and  corrections.  Members  of  boards 
of  managers  and  committees  of  philanthropic 
institutions.  Friendly  visitors  and  volunteer 
workers  in  any  field  of  service  requiring  an 
acquaintance  with  existing  conditions  and  a 
knowledge  of  modern  methods  of  social  work* 


178  SOCIAL  SEEVICE 

In  PMladelpliia,  Pennsylvania,  the  girls' 
branch  of  the  house  of  refuge  has  been  placed 
in  charge  of  a  woman  trained  for  social  work  in 
Chicago,  Martha  P.  Falconer,  who  has  employed 
as  teachers  about  eight  Wellesley  and  Vassar 
graduates  who  specialized  on  sociology  during 
their  college  course  and  later  took  postgraduate 
training  for  social  work.  In  glancing  over  the 
bulletin  of  the  Thirty-fifth  National  Conference 
of  Charities  and  Corrections,  held  at  Eichmond, 
Virginia,  in  May,  1908,  I  find  that  among  hun- 
dreds of  offices  held  by  women  are  these :  Secre- 
tary charity  organization  society;  clerkof  juven- 
ile court ;  assistant  superintendent  of  industrial 
school  for  girls;  truant  officers;  investigating 
clerk  board  of  children's  guardians;  secretary 
of  the  same  board ;  circulation  manager  of  Chari- 
ties and  Commons;  supervisor  of  playgrounds; 
superintendent  State  training-school  for  girls; 
district  superintendent  bureau  of  charities; 
superintendent  nurses'  association;  matron  of 
home  for  working-girls ;  matron  of  farm  school 
and  home  for  nervous  and  backward  children; 
probation  officer;  superintendent  I.  0,  0.  F. 
home;  agent  soldiers'  orphan  home  industrial 
school  for  girls;  head  resident  neighborhood 
house ;  superintendent  of  probationers  State  in- 
dustrial school;  registrar  tenement-house  de- 
partment; superintendent  visiting  nurses. 

There  are  openings  for  trained  workers  in 


SOCIAL  SERVICE  179 


settlement  or  neighborhood  houses,  in  consum- 
ers' leagues,  in  district  nursing,  in  the  child- 
labor  movement,  in  public  playgrounds,  in  sum- 
mer schools  for  the  poor,  in  free  clinics  for 
mothers  who  need  to  be  taught  how  to  care  for 
their  children,  in  country  homes  for  convales- 
cents and  children,  and  in  the  anti- tuberculosis 
movement.  The  Russell  Sage  Foundation  and 
similar  benefactions  give  the  preference  to 
trained  workers,  and  especially  to  investigators. 

The  charity  organizations  in  large  cities  ex- 
perience great  difficulty  in  retaining  the  serv- 
ices of  their  trained  workers,  because  from 
smaller  cities  just  organizing  charity  associa- 
tions, or  from  some  private  institutions  beingre- 
organized  on  practical,  up-to-date  lines,  come 
better  offers  for  the  trained  worker  of  city  ex- 
perience. 

A  man  who  stands  close  to  the  head  of  his 
profession,  philanthropy,  told  me  recently  that 
he  knew  of  not  less  than  six  societies  or  organi- 
zations ready  to  pay  from  eighteen  hundred  to 
three  thousand  dollars  a  year  that  were  search- 
ing for  the  right  men  and  women.  And  the 
right  man  or  woman  is  not  the  untrained,  how- 
ever earnest,  one. 

The  salaries  paid  in  philanthropy  or  social 
service  are  about  the  same  as  those  which  pre- 
vail in  schools  and  colleges,  though  for  execu- 
tive ability,  especially  among  men,  a  little  more 


isa 


SOCIAL  SERVICE 


is  paid  by  the  charity  organization  than  by  a 
college  or  school.  A  minimum  salary  for  the 
beginner  is  six  dollars  a  week,  or  three  hundred 
and  twelve  dollars  a  year,  but  it  is  seldom  that 
a  worker  draws  so  low  a  salary  for  any  length 
of  time.  If  she  is  worth  training,  she  is  quickly 
worth  more  money.  From  three  hundred  and 
twelve  a  year  the  salary  usually  jumps  to  five 
hundred  dollars,  and  increases  with  the  useful- 
ness and  executive  ability  of  the  worker,  seven 
thousand  dollars  being  the  maximum  salary. 

The  preparation  consists  of  high-school  edu- 
cation, or,  better,  special  attention  to  sociology 
and  anthropology  and  political  economy,  fol- 
lowed by  a  year's  practical  training  in  a  school 
of  philanthropy.  The  entrance  requirements  of 
the  New  York  School  of  Philanthropy,  which  is 
conducted  by  the  Charity  Organization  Society 
of  the  City  of  New  York  and  affiliated  with  Co- 
lumbia University,  are  as  follows: 

^^Men  and  women  are  enrolled  as  regular 
students,  without  further  examination,  who  pre- 
sent satisfactory  credentials  as  to  character, 
good  health  and  earnestness  of  purpose,  and  be- 
long to  one  of  the  following  classes:  First, 
graduates  of  a  recognized  college  or  university 
who  have  taken  some  courses  in  the  social  sci- 
ences— sociology,  economics,  etc.  Second,  per- 
sons of  good  general  education — at  least  equiva- 
lent to  a  high  school  or  normal  school  training 


SOCIAL  SERVICE  181 


— who  have  had  considerable  experience  as  vol- 
unteer managers,  visitors  or  directors  of  chari- 
table societies,  or  of  social,  educational,  philan- 
thropic or  religions  activities.  Third,  profes- 
sional workers  with  at  least  one  year's  success- 
ful practice  of  the  profession  of  social  work 
who  desire  to  improve  their  knowledge  of  the 
methods  of  social  service. 

In  one  or  two  other  schools  the  entrance  re- 
quirements are  a  trifle  less  rigid. 

The  plan  of  instruction  employed  in  the  New 
York  School  of  Philanthropy,  and  practically; 
in  all  similar  schools,  is  as  follows : 

The  one-year  course  offers  supervised  work 
to  occupy  the  entire  time  of  the  student  for 
eight  months  (October  to  May),  six  days  in  the 
week  from  nine  o'clock  to  five.  It  comprises 
formal  lectures  by  experts,  classroom  exercises 
and  discussions,  assigned  readings  and  library 
work,  field  work  in  visiting  institutions  and 
carrying  on  investigations,  practice  work  in  the 
visitation  of  needy  families  and  the  practical 
administration  of  office  work  in  the  various  spe- 
cial lines  of  the  individual  interest  of  each  sepa- 
rate student.  New  York  City  offers  doubtless 
the  richest  opportuwties  in  the  country  for  such 
practice  work. 

The  tuition  fee  for  such  training  averages 
fifty  dollars  a  year,  to  which  board  and  inci- 
dental expenses  must  be  added — about  five  hun- 


182  SOCIAL  SERVICE 


dred  dollars  in  all  for  the  year.  Sometimes  the 
latter  are  reduced  by  a  student  living  at  a  settle- 
ment or  neighborhood  house  and  earning  part 
of  her  expenses  as  a  helper,  but  the  taking  of 
outside  employment  during  the  training  is  not 
encouraged.  Also  several  scholarships  are 
granted  annually  to  promising  workers. 

As  I  said  before,  graduates  do  not  have  to 
seek  positions.  The  positions  seek  them.  There 
is  absolutely  no  period  of  uncertainty  or  wait- 
ing for  the  well-equipped  and  trained  worker 
to  face. 

In  conclusion,  here  is  a  word  of  suggestion  to 
nurses,  teachers  and  stenographers  who  have 
spent  years  preparing  for  their  work,  only  to 
find  it  uncongenial  and  wearing.  If  you  be- 
lieve that  you  would  enjoy  social  work,  apply 
to  the  nearest  charity  organization  and  ascer- 
tain just  what  your  experience  would  count  for. 
If  a  teacher  in  graded  schools  change  to  a  posi- 
tion in  a  State  or  private  charity  institution. 
If  a  private  nurse,  try  visiting  nursing  among 
the  poor.  If  a  stenographer  in  a  law  office,  try 
for  a  clerical  position  in  a  charity  organization. 
If  the  call  is  meant  for  you,  it  will  come  to  you, 
no  matter  what  the  position,  and  the  means  to 
answer  will  come  with  the  call. 


CHAPTER  XIV 


PEOOF-KEADING  AND  WOBK  IN  PUBLISHING  HOUSES 

Women  have  hazy  ideas,  often  grave  miscon- 
ceptions, concerning  proof-reading  and  all  work 
for  their  sex  offered  by  publishing  concerns. 
For  some  inexplicable  reason,  the  average  out- 
of-town  woman  imagines  that  every  branch  of 
work  connected  with  the  publication  of  books  or 
magazines  is  extremely  lady-like  and  elegant. 
They  cannot  appreciate  the  close  connection  ex- 
isting between  the  literary  and  the  mechanical 
ends  of  the  business.  They  picture  women  em- 
ployees at  home,  turning  out  in  leisurely  fash- 
ion the  *^work"  which  is  finally  shipped  by 
messenger,  mail  or  express  to  the  few  poor 
unfortunates  who  must  remain  at  the  ^^shop'' 
and  keep  the  wheels  spinning  round. 

Occasionally  correspondents  who  hold  such 
views  come  to  see  me  at  the  great  noisy  build- 
ing where  we,  who  have  served  some  sort  of  ap- 
prenticeship in  the  art  of  making  books  and 
periodicals,  are  turning  out  pages  for  other 
folk  to  read.    They  listen  to  the  clack  of  half 

183 


184  PEOOF-READING 


a  hundred  typewriters.  They  peer  into  edi- 
torial dens,  separated  only  by  thin  half-par- 
titions from  the  rush  of  many  feet,  the  issuing 
of  many  orders,  all  the  turmoil  common  to  any 
great  business  concern.  And  they  murmur: 
Nobody  could  write  in  an  atmosphere  like  this 
and  remain  sane.'^ 

But  we  do — and  we  learn  to  love  the  atmos- 
phere. 

Then  these  women  climb  winding  stairways 
to  where  intent,  silent  girls  click  out  columns 
of  copy  on  linotype  machines,  and  they  enter 
small,  electrically-lighted  rooms,  where  other 
intent  girls  sit  beside  coatless  men,  reading 
proof. 

^^Why,  I  never  dreamed  it  was  like  this!  I 
thought  proof-sheets  were  sent  to  women  to  read 
at  home.  I  could  not  think  clearly  in  this  dirt 
and  noise.'' 

Much  of  this  misconception  of  publishing 
house  work  is  due  to  the  misleading  advertising 
matter  issued  by  certain  unscrupulous  mana- 
gers of  correspondence  schools  in  proof-read- 
ing. They  flood  the  country,  and  especially  the 
rural  districts,  with  circulars  stating  that  the 
girls  who  master  their  system  of  proof-reading 
by  correspondence  will  have  work  in  plenty  sent 
to  their  homes.  These  promises  are  so  cleverly 
worded  that  the  guarantee  of  work  or  a  position 
on  completion  of  the  course  is  quite  within  the 


PEOOF-EEADING  185 


law,  and  the  student,  perhaps  unable  to  leave 
home  in  search  of  work,  has  no  redress,  and 
nothing  to  show  for  the  fee  paid  for  the  course. 

The  course  of  study  may  be  entirely  sincere 
and  reliable  in  theory,  but  the  man  behind  it 
cannot  furnish  home  work,  and  he  has  no  right 
to  guarantee  it.  I  have  the  backing  of  employ- 
ers in  many  cities  and  practical  foremen  and 
printers  when  I  say  that  ninety-nine  out  of 
every  one  hundred  students  who  take  a  course 
of  home-study  proof-reading  will  never  make 
use  of  it.  The  hundredth  boy  or  girl  will  be  a 
worker  born,  and  will  go  out  into  the  printing 
world  to  seek  practical  instruction  and  train- 
ing, but  not  one  out  of  the  hundred  will  ever  re- 
ceive a  galley  of  proof  to  read  on  the  farm -or 
in  the  little  village. 

Personally,  I  am  a  firm  believer  in  any  re- 
liable correspondence  course,  and  particularly  a 
university  extension  course,  for  the  young  man 
or  woman  who  is  far  from  educational  and  busi- 
ness centers,  and  who  yet  desires  to  keep  in 
touch  with  the  world's  progress.  It  has  spurred 
many  a  girl  and  boy  on  to  efforts  which 
have  brought  rich  rewards,  when  without  this 
impetus  they  would  have  vegetated  or  stagnated 
in  the  village  or  on  the  farm  where  they  were 
born.  It  is  also  a  boon  to  the  man  or  woman 
whose  early  education  has  been  neglected,  but, 
like  the  college  or  university  diploma,  it  is  not 


186  PROOF-EEADING 


the  key  to  business  success  and  an  assured  in- 
come. It  cannot  give  the  essential  and  practical 
experience  obtained  in  an  office,  composing- 
room  or  factory:  but  it  can  make  first  experi- 
ences in  the  workaday  world  much  easier.  The 
college-bred  lad  who  decides  to  become  a  proof- 
reader must  serve  his  apprenticeship,  his 
diploma  notwithstanding.  Why  should  a  stu- 
dent expect  a  diploma  or  certificate  from  a  cor- 
respondence school  to  do  away  with  this  appren- 
ticeship or  nullify  the  rules  and  regulations  of 
one  of  the  strongest  unions  in  the  labor  world? 

The  home-student  may  take  her  correspond- 
ence course  if  she  lacks  the  courage  to  enter 
upon  an  apprenticeship  without  theoretical 
training,  but  she  must  not  expect  the  course  to 
open  the  door  to  easy  work,  short  hours  and  big 
pay.  These  are  the  reward  of  an  apprentice- 
ship covering  four  years  or  more. 

Neither  is  proof-reading  a  trade  for  the  girl 
or  woman  who  wants  home  work.  It  is  bound  to 
take  her  into  the  ^^shop,''  as  the  composing- 
room  is  commonly  called.  Why  should  publish- 
ers send  work  to  the  home  of  refined  or  delicate 
or  sensitive  women  who  need  the  wages,  when 
hundreds  of  strong,  skilled  and  willing  women 
are  knocking  at  the  doors  of  their  composing- 
rooms  for  work  on  the  premises? 

The  foreman  of  the  shop  connected  with  a 
publishing  house  of  national  fame  told  me  that 


PEOOF-EEADING  187 


last  year  he  received  five  hundred  written  appli- 
cations from  women  who  desired  to  do  proof- 
reading at  home  and  expected  to  follow  the 
trade  without  leaving  home,  having  work  sent 
to  them  and  called  for,  drawing  the  regular 
union  wages,  thus  working  in  what  some  of  them 
termed  a    quiet,  ladylike,  confidential  way." 

I  want  to  impress  on  the  mind  of  all  home- 
staying  girls  that  the  time  for  this  sort  of 'non- 
sense has  passed.  Business  men  are  not  con- 
ducting socities  for  the  amelioration  of  the  con- 
dition of  distressed  gentlewomen.  They  are 
demanding  that  every  one  of  us  women  who 
compete  with  men  in  the  field  of  labor  work 
under  the  same  conditions  and  give  the  same  re- 
sults as  the  men  with  whom  we  toil  shoulder  to 
shoulder. 

As  a  union  proof-reader,  a  woman  will  be  paid 
precisely  the  same  salary  given  to  the  male 
worker,  but  she  must  do  the  work  just  as  well, 
and  reach  her  position  by  precisely  the  same 
method  of  training,  the  same  apprenticeship  re- 
quired of  a  man. 

And  now,  having  learned  what  proof-reading 
is  not,  and  how  girls  cannot  attain  a  position  in 
this  trade,  let  those  who  really  mean  to  *^make 
good"  take  counsel  together. 

Proof-reading  is  one  of  the  best-paid  trades 
for  women.  The  minimum  salary  is  twenty-one 
dollars  per  week,  and  the  expert  worker  names 


188  PEOOF-EEADING 


her  own  price  if  she  specializes.  In  union  shops 
she  will  work  eight  hours  a  day,  and  her  employ- 
ers must  live  up  to  all  union  regulations  cover- 
ing holidays,  half  holidays,  overtime,  etc.  The 
conditions  under  which  a  proof-reader  works  are 
better  than  those  in  the  average  department 
stores,  and  not  less  sanitary  than  in  the  average 
office  building.  Neither  is  proof-reading  a 
crowded  trade,  and  the  woman  who  has  mas- 
tered it  can  make  a  place  for  herself.  There  are 
about  six  thousand  union  printers  and  proof- 
readers in  New  York,  and  it  is  said  that  not 
more  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  of  these  are 
women. 

The  girl  who  decides  to  take  up  proof-read- 
ing should  have  good  health,  or  the  nervous 
energy  which,  with  women,  is  often  a  substitute 
for  perfect  health.  She  must  have  a  thoroughly 
grounded  education  in  English,  though  a  college 
education  is  not  essential.  She  should  be  what 
is  termed  a  bom  speller  and  a  mistress  of  punc- 
tuation. She  must  have  a  well-developed  bump 
of  accuracy,  for  inaccuracy  is  the  unpardonable 
sin  in  a  composing-room.  While  she  must  be 
accurate  to  the  point  of  being  mechanical,  she 
must  learn  to  recognize  a  mistake  intuitively, 
rather  than  to  follow  copy  slavishly.  She  should 
be  a  student  of  current  events  and  keep  in  touch 
with  all  the  movements  and  prominent  people 
of  the  day.  She  must  have  the  patience  and  grit 


PEOOF-EEADING 


189 


to  endure  a  long  and  tiresome  apprenticeship 
and  the  tact  to  secure  the  most  rapid  advance- 
ment consistent  with  union  rules  at  the  hands 
of  the  powers  above  her. 

Having  looked  over  the  field  and  decided  that 
she  is  not  only  suited  to  the  work,  but  deeply 
interested  in  the  mechanical  making  of  books 
and  magazines,  she  must  find  her  opening.  This 
is  not  easy  to  secure,  for  printers  are,  above 
all  other  union  men,  the  most  clannish. 

A  sincere  friendship  or  a  ripening  acquaint- 
ance with  a  working  typesetter  or  proof-reader, 
man  or  woman,  is  worth  a  dozen  letters  of  in- 
troduction to  the  man  who  owns  the  shop.  The 
foreman  of  the  composing-room  or  the  superin- 
tendent of  the  shop,  if  it  be  a  large  establish- 
ment, is  an  autocrat  before  whom  even  the 
proprietor  bows.  No  girl  wants  to  enter  a  shop 
to  be  tolerated,  rather  than  advanced.  There- 
fore let  her  make  friends  with  practical 
printers. 

The  most  successful,  the  best-paid  women 
proof-readers  are  those  who  started  at  the 
printing-case,  that  is,  set  type.  There  is  noth- 
ing about  the  trade  they  do  not  know,  and  their 
knowledge  of  proof-reading  is  built  on  the  firm 
foundation  of  typesetting  and  all  its  correlative 
work.  Perhaps  the  girl  in  the  smaller  city  has 
the  better  chance  to  start  at  the  case,  where, 
by  the  way,  she  draws  the  munificent  salary  of 


190  PEOOF-READING 


three  dollars  per  week,  or  five  dollars  at  the 
most,  with  a  dollar  raise  from  time  to  time  as 
she  becomes  more  adept.  This  is  true  because 
in  the  smaller  cities  linotype  machines  are  not 
so  common  as  in  the  great  trade  centers. 

After  many  years  of  investigation  of  ave- 
nues open  to  working-women,  I  have  reached 
the  decision  that  in  no  other  trade  does  the  indi- 
divuality  of  the  woman,  her  very  ego,  count  with 
such  force  as  in  securing  an  opening  as  proof- 
reader. She  must  make  her  presence  felt  among 
her  associates.  Only  one  woman  in  a  thousand 
can  step  from  the  printing-case  or  the  linotype 
machine  to  the  proof-reader's  table,  and  she 
must  show  a  peculiar  adaptability  for  the  work. 
Her  personality  must  triumph  over  obstacles 
peculiar  to  her  trade. 

On  the  other  hand,  for  the  woman  who  looks 
forward  to  a  long  career  in  the  business  or 
trade  world,  who  finds  a  great  and  abiding  hap- 
piness in  surmounting  obstacles,  to  whom  suc- 
cess, hardly  earned,  is  intoxicating  (and  there 
are  many  women  of  this  sort  to-day),  proof- 
reading presents  a  most  attractive  field. 

Perhaps  the  reader  lives  in  a  city  of  ten  or 
fifteen  thousand  inhabitants,  with  its  weekly  or 
daily  paper  and  a  job  printing  shop  or  two.  Let 
her  go  straight  to  the  job  printer  himself  or  the 
foreman  of  the  composing-room  attached  to  the 
paper  and  ask  for  work.  Nine  chances  out  of  ten 


PEOOF-EEADING  191 


she  will  find  no  opening,  but  she  must  go  again 
and  again,  until  the  foreman  is  convinced  of 
her  sincerity.  If  she  cannot  get  a  place  on  the 
composing  force  at  first,  let  her  see  the  editor 
of  the  paper,  and  ask  him  if  she  may  not  con- 
tribute news  items,  accounts  of  social  affairs, 
school  or  college  or  church  notes.  Probably  he 
will  say  that  he  cannot  afford  to  pay  her.  Let 
her  write  for  him  anyhow,  and  get  a  foothold 
on  that  paper.  If  he  has  never  had  a  ^'social 
department,"  she  can  build  one  up  for  him.  To 
all  appearances  she  will  be  working  on  the  edi- 
torial end  of  the  paper.  In  reality  she  will  be 
keeping  her  eye  on  the  foreman  of  the  compos- 
ing-room, and  when  he  realizes  that  she  works 
with  enthusiasm^  that  she  does  the  small  thing 
well,  that  she  is  using  the  items  of  news  as  a 
stepping-stone  to  his  department,  he  will  make 
room  for  her  just  as  soon  as  he  can. 

This  does  not  sound  encouraging,  I  admit,  but 
a  woman  who  now  reads  proof  in  an  establish- 
ment which  publishes  many  high-grade  text- 
books in  various  languages,  and  receives  a 
salary  of  forty  dollars  a  week,  started  in  pre- 
cisely this  way  less  than  ten  years  ago.  For  the 
weekly  edition  of  the  paper  she  condensed  the 
women's  news  for  the  entire  week,  and  went 
up  to  the  composing-room  to  watch  the  foreman 
^^make  up"  her  special  department.  She  won 
over  that  individual,  a  crusty,  old-fashioned 


192  PEOOF-EEADING 


printer,  by  her  enthusiasm,  and  finally  he  gave 
her  a  chance  on  his  force.  His  staff  was  not 
large,  though  there  was  a  job  plant  in  connec- 
tion, and  he  had  time  to  give  the  girl  individual 
attention.  He  had  always  read  his  own  proof, 
assisted  by  the  editor,  but  when  this  girl  mani- 
fested a  determination  to  master  proof-reading 
it  was  gradually  turned  over  to  her.  She 
worked  in  this  shop  for  four  years,  the  regula- 
tion length  of  apprenticeship,  and  when  she  re- 
ceived her  union  card  she  was  drawing  the 
munificent  wages  of  eight  dollars  per  week.  But 
there  was  nothing  about  the  trade  she  did  not 
know  thoroughly.  More  than  that,  she  had 
learned  the  importance  of  cramming  her  brain 
with  accurate  general  information.  At  a  glance 
she  could  tell  whether  the  name  of  a  prominent 
man  was  correctly  spelled,  whether  the  right 
initials  or  Christian  name  had  been  given  also. 
If  a  political  measure  was  brought  into  promi- 
nence, she  read  everything  about  it  that  she 
could  find.  If  a  small  nation  had  come  before 
the  public,  she  studied  up  its  history,  geography 
and  politics;  in  other  words,  she  did  what  all 
successful  proof-readers  must  do — she  became  a 
practical  student  with  singular  powers  of  con- 
centration. 

With  her  union  card  she  went  straight  from 
her  native  city  to  New  York,  and  in  a  short  time 
secured  an  opening  at  the  minimum  union 


PEOOF-READING  193 


wages  in  the  publishing  house  where  she  is  em- 
ployed to-day.  She  soon  realized  that  if  she 
specialized  in  some  way  she  would  command  a 
larger  salary.  She  took  a  course  in  German, 
then  one  in  French,  and  now  she  can  read  proof 
in  either  of  these  two  languages.  She  says  she 
means  to  take  up  Latin  and  Greek  next — and 
this  is  a  woman  who  started  on  a  district-school 
education ! 

I  asked  her  whether  she  thought  proof-read- 
ing was  really  worth  the  consideration  of 
women  workers.   She  answered: 

Unless  you  take  joy  in  wresting  hard-earned 
success  from  what  seems  like  a  barren  field,  no. 
But  if  you  want  a  career  which  will  forever 
broaden  and  lead  you  into  new  avenues  of 
thought  and  study,  yes.  With  most  women,  un- 
fortunately, proof-reading  is  purely  mechani- 
cal, and  becomes  trying  on  the  nerves,  almost 
maddening  in  its  monotony.  It  is  only  when  you 
study  with  an  aim  of  increasing  your  value  to 
your  firm  that  you  are  happy  in  your  work.'' 

Another  successful  woman  in  this  line  of  work 
never  set  type,  but  started  in  a  clerical  position. 
She  had  a  letter  of  introduction  to  the  foreman 
of  a  large  printing  and  binding  establishment. 
He  said  there  was  no  opening  for  her  as  a  copy- 
holder, the  position  at  which  she  wished  to  start. 
The  girl  asked  desperately  if  there  was  not 
something  she  could  do,  no  matter  how  small. 


194  PROOF-READING 


He  said  that  if  she  had  a  head  for  detail  she 
could  keep  track  of  proofs  and  other  matters 
connected  with  his  peculiarly  responsible  posi- 
tion— for  a  salary,  of  five  dollars  a  week.  She 
jumped  at  the  chance,  and  for  nearly  a  year  she 
worked  thus,  sorting  proofs  for  him,  keeping  a 
record  of  everything  that  came  to  his  desk  or 
left  it.  And  she  did  the  work  as  if  her  life  de- 
pended  upon  it.  Never  had  his  files  been  kept 
so  well.  When  there  was  a  chance  for  her  to 
hold  copy  for  an  hour  or  two,  he  gave  her  the 
opportunity.  This  means  that  she  held  the 
original  manuscript  while  the  proof-reader  held 
the  proofs  and  read  them  aloud,  the  girl  watch- 
ing for  mistakes. 

When  the  copy-holder  left  to  take  a  position 
as  proof-reader  with  another  firm,  this  girl  took 
his  place  at  eight  dollars  per  week.  She  held 
the  copy  and  attended  to  her  clerical  duties  for 
four  years,  received  her  union  card,  and,  as  the 
firm's  business  had  grown  until  more  proof- 
readers were  needed,  she  received  the  first  posi- 
tion open.  A  simple  tale  of  drudgery  and  per- 
sistency is  hers,  but  the  woman  does  not  look 
at  it  that  way.  Every  day  she  was  learning.  It 
was  not  a  mere  mechanical  performance  of 
duties,  for  she  was  constantly  storing  her  mind 
with  information  on  a  wide  range  of  subjects. 

The  girl  who  really  wants  to  learn  proof- 
reading can  find  a  way — and  she  must  find  it 


PEOOF-EEADING  195 


for  herself.  Let  her  cultivate  men  and  women 
in  the  printing  trade.  Let  her  take  anything 
she  can  get  to  do  in  a  printing  or  binding  shop, 
and  work,  everlastingly  work;  and  then  study 
as  if  she  were  back  in  school. 

If  she  cannot  afford  to  work  for  a  small 
salary  she  must  not  think  of  this  trade.  She 
cannot  secure  full  union  wages  for  at  least  four 
years.  But  bear  in  mind  that  during  all  this 
drudgery  on  a  small  salary  she  is  being  edu- 
cated. Her  parents  must  pay  for  her  tuition  in 
art,  in  music,  in  stenography — and  then  she 
must  fight  for  a  living.  In  the  hard  training 
that  leads  to  the  position  of  proof-reader  she 
pays  out  nothing,  she  is  paid  something,  and 
when  she  receives  her  '^card"  her  position 
comes  with  it.   There  is  no  uncertainty. 

Many  women  ask  me  what  books  they  should 
study  to  prepare  for  this  work.  A  thorough 
grounding  in  English — grammar,  spelling  and 
rhetoric — is  essential.  An  excellent  book  on  the 
art  is  ^^Composition,''  by  Theodore  Low  De 
Vinne,  the  dean  of  American  printers.  This 
book  is  recognized  as  the  one  authority  by  all 
printers. 

Another  branch  of  work  in  publication  cen- 
ters for  which  girls  yearn  is  manuscript  read- 
ing, or  acting  as  assistant  to  the  editor.  Fully 
half  the  girls  who  have  led  a  life  of  leisure, 
after  leaving  boarding-school  or  a  fashionable 


196  PEOOF-EEADING 


finishing-school,  and  who  meet  with  sudden 
financial  reverses,  think  they  would  succeed  best 
as  assistant  editors. 

^^I  have  always  read  the  best  literature,  and 
kept  up  in  current  magazines.  I  write  a  good 
hand,  and  I  never  grow  tired  of  books.  I  un- 
derstand that  all  editors  have  assistants  who 
read  things  for  them.'^ 

This  is  a  sample  letter,  and  a  representative 
sample.  Generally  the  writer  adds  that  she 
^^understands  that  editorial  hours  are  short 
and  editorial  offices  elegant  and  refined.'' 

Who,  oh,  who  is  responsible  for  any  such 

understanding"?  True,  editors  and  publish- 
ers have  large  staffs  of  assistants,  but  each  is 
a  worker,  and  each  must  have  some  preparation 
for  the  work.  The  girl  who  has  never  seen  the 
inside  of  a  publishing  house  and  who  has  never 
written  a  line  for  publication  must  have  remark- 
able ideas  regarding  the  needs  of  the  editor 
who  will  pay  her  salary.  And  she,  too,  must 
serve  an  apprenticeship. 

She  will  need  a  letter  of  introduction  to  some 
one  well  up  in  the  firm,  and  this  must  be  backed 
by  a  willingness  to  begin  at  the  bottom.  If  she 
is  very  fortunate,  she  will  be  given  an  humble 
clerical  position,  that  of  manuscript  clerk.  This 
means,  in  a  large  concern,  that  all  incoming 
manuscripts  will  be  brought  to  her  table  or  of- 
fice.   Perhaps  a  boy  will  open  them;  perhaps 


PROOF-READING  197 


she  may  be  expected  to  do  this  herself;  and  they 
will  pour  in,  hundreds  in  each  mail  delivery. 

These  manuscripts  she  will  glance  over,  en- 
ter the  name  of  the  article,  the  title  of  the  story, 
the  date  of  its  receipt  and  its  disposition  in  a 
large  book,  not  unlike  a  ledger.  Then  she  will 
take  a  fresh  envelope  bearing  the  firm's  name, 
place  the  manuscript  in  this,  address  it  to  the 
writer,  and  in  the  upper  right-hand  corner 
where  the  stamp  should  go  she  will  write  the 
amount  of  postage  enclosed  with  the  article  by 
the  sender.  Then  this  manuscript  and  all  its 
fellows  she  will  toss  into  a  big  receptacle  to  be 
sent  to  the  first  manuscript  reader.  The  stamps 
she  turns  in  to  the  cashier.  By  and  by,  each 
manuscript  or  a  report  upon  it  will  come  back 
to  her  desk,  and  she  must  complete  her  record, 
writing  in  the  record  book  whether  the 
script  was  accepted  or  returned,  and  if  returned 
on  what  date. 

This  is  purely  clerical,  mechanical  work,  and 
it  must  be  done  accurately  and  regularly,  for 
every  time  a  writer  reports  a  manuscript  as 
lost,  this  girl  must  prove  that  the  loss  occurred 
after  the  article  was  turned  over  to  Uncle  Sam 
for  its  homeward  journey  to  the  writer. 

How  long  the  girl  must  do  this  purely  me- 
chanical work  depends  upon  herself.  In  a  large 
and  important  office,  she  serves  a  stern  appren- 
ticeship.  Gradually,  however,  the  first  manu- 


198  PEOOF-EEADING 


script  reader,  who  may  have  been  watching  her 
work,  will  suggest  that  she  take  time  to  look 
over  the  scripts.  Her  instructions  will  be  some- 
thing like  this: 

^^Do  not  send  me  any  stories  of  more  than 
7,000  words  or  less  than  1,700.  We  do  not  use 
them  in  this  magazine.  Do  not  send  me  any 
poetry  or  articles  on  cookery  or  the  care  of 
children.  Do  not  send  me  any  serials.'^ 

Here  is  her  first  opportunity  to  demonstrate 
her  literary  ability,  her  power  of  selection. 
From  that  day  she  takes  special  pains  not  to 
burden  the  manuscript  reader  with  unavailable 
scripts.  By  and  by  she  reads  most  of  the  arti- 
cles and  attaches  to  them  little  comments  which 
save  the  first  reader  time  and  trouble.  The  lat- 
ter goes  on  his  or  her  vacation  and  suggests  to 
the  editor  that'Miss  Blank,  who  keeps  the  manu- 
script record,  is  perfectly  capable  of  doing  the 
first  reading.  During  that  memorable  fort- 
night Miss  Blank  works  as  she  never  worked 
before  and  probably  never  will  again.  She  must 
read  the  scripts  and  pass  them  on  to  the  vari- 
ous editors,  who,  in  turn,  must  pass  upon  their 
availability.  And  she  must  not  send  manu- 
scripts to  the  wrong  editors.  She  must  display 
literary  judgment  and  discretion. 

If  she  makes  a  good  record  as  a  substitute, 
in  time,  when  the  first  reader  becomes  an  as- 
sistant editor,  Miss  Blank  is  promoted  to  the 


PEOOF-EEADING  199 


vacant  place.  Later  she,  too,  becomes  an  assis- 
tant editor  and  is  admitted  to  the  councils  of 
the  great.  But,  you  see,  she  serves  her  appren- 
ticeship here,  as  in  any  line  of  work  that  leads 
to  real  success.  It  does  not  represent  hard 
manual  work,  but  it  represents  concentration  on 
the  small  things  before  she  may  be  entrusted 
with  the  larger  duties. 


CHAPTER  XV 


KINDERGARTENING 

The  girl  who  must  become  a  wage  earner  '*at 
once''  should  not  look  to  kindergartening  as  her 
field  of  school  work.  It  is  perhaps  the  most 
subtle  branch  of  pedagogics.  Its  principles 
must  be  absorbed  slowly.  They  cannot  be  swal- 
lowed at  a  gulp,  as  the  average  American  girl 
tries  to  acquire  her  preparation  in  many  fields 
of  moneymaking. 

Kindergartening  is  a  philosophy.  Its  foun- 
der, Froebel,  built  his  methods  upon  the  philoso- 
phy of  right  living  and  individuality  in  child- 
life.  The  girl  who  hopes  to  become  a  success- 
ful kindergartner  must  first  build  her  own  char- 
acter according  to  that  philosophy.  It  is  not 
enough  to  love  children,  though  this  love  is  an 
important  stone  in  your  foundation  for  the 
work.  You  must  be  versed  in  the  psychology  of 
childhood.  You  cannot  ^^cram"  during  kinder- 
garten preparation.  Neither  can  you  make  up 
deficiencies  in  your  early  education.  You  will 
require  all  your  physical  and  mental  powers  to 

200 


KINDEEGARTENING  201 

master  the  new  ideas  presented  in  the  training- 
school  for  kindergartners.  You  may  enter  a 
shop  as  a  clerk  and  tread  the  pathway  to  finan- 
cial success  by  way  of  experience  and  your 
early  mistakes,  but  you  cannot  correct  mistakes 
in  the  kindergarten. 

A  business  college  may  grant  you  a  diploma 
and  send  you  out  to  plague  future  employers 
because  you  learned  to  form  the  pot-hooks  of 
stenography  before  you  had  thoroughly  mas- 
tered your  spelling-bookj  but  you  cannot  enter  a 
training-school  for  kindergartners  without 
passing  preliminary  examinations  which  will 
test  severely  your  qualifications  in  high-school 
branches. 

This  introductory  preachment  is  offered  be- 
cause I  want  to  play  fair  at  the  beginning.  The 
high-school  girl  who  must  make  money  imme- 
diately on  graduation  is  wasting  her  time  in 
building  kindergarten  plans  and  air-castles. 
The  woman  who  has  been  a  home  maker  and 
out  of  the  school  atmosphere  for  years  cannot 
read  a  few  books  on  kindergartening,  buy  a  few 
games  and  open  a  kindergarten  in  a  few  weeks. 
But  to  the  girl  who  is  considering  the  matter 
seriously,  who  has  time  and  money  to  take  a 
thorough  course  in  the  work,  kindergartening 
opens  a  field  of  self-support  worth  cultivating. 
The  ambitious,  business-like  kindergartner  does 


202  KINDERGAETENING 


not  to  have  to  remain  on  salary — she  can  have  a 
school  of  her  own. 

First,  what  are  the  requirements  for  admis- 
sion to  a  recognized  training-school  for  kinder- 
gartners  ? 

A  high-school  education  or  its  equivalent  at 
a  private  institution. 

Second,  what  is  required  of  an  applicant  for 
a  position  in  the  public  kindergartens  of  large 
cities  1 

A  two-year  course  at  some  representative 
training-school  for  kindergartners. 

The  would-be  kindergartner  must  have  a 
knowledge  of  music;  both  instrumental  and 
vocal  are  desirable.  She  must  have  at  her  fin- 
ger-tips a  practical  knowledge  of  botany,  art, 
geography,  mathematics  and  general  literature. 
She  must  be  of  good  character,  even-tempered 
and  self-controlled,  neat  in  appearance,  amend- 
able to  the  red  tape  and  the  regulations  of  pub- 
lic-school systems,  and  she  must  possess  above 
all  things  that  indescribable  gift,  the  power  to 
attract,  often  called  personal  magnetism,  and  to 
inspire  confidence  in  children. 

The  hysterical  girl  will  never  succeed  as  a 
kindergartner.  The  untidy  girl  has  no  place 
in  this  wonderful  garden  of  children.  The  girl 
who  looks  beyond  the  month's  work  to  salary 
day,  and  this  to  the  exclusion  of  everything  else, 
will  not  last  in  the  kindergarten  field. 


KINDEEGARTENING  203 


Many  girls  have  written  to  me  that  tliey  un- 
derstand that  a  college  degree  is  necessary  to 
secure  a  position  in  a  first-class  school.  This  de- 
pends entirely  upon  your  interpretation  of  the 
term  first  class.'  '  If  you  mean  the  public  kin- 
dergartens (and  there  are  no  better  fields  of  ef~ 
fort,  no  schools  that  pay  better  salaries  in  the 
long  run)  J  then  the  statement  is  incorrect.  Prin- 
cipals of  fashionable  private  schools  demand  a 
college  degree  from  every  applicant  for  a  posi- 
tion, and  in  the  public  schools,  if  you  desire  to 
rise  to  the  rank  of  supervisor  or  teacher  in  a 
training-school  for  teachers,  the  degree  is  essen- 
tial. On  the  other  hand,  a  girl  is  entirely  safe 
in  taking  merely  her  two  ye^rs  of  work  at  a  rep- 
resentative training-school  for  kindergartners ; 
and  then,  after  she  has  established  herself  suc- 
cessfully as  a  teacher  and  has  saved  funds  from 
her  salary,  she  may  take  the  special  college 
course  which  will  fit  her  for  the  post  of  train- 
ing-school teacher  or  supervisor. 

Now  for  the  girl  in  a  large  city  who  is  ambi- 
tious to  become  a  kindergartner. 

Investigate  first  the  possibilities  of  the  pub- 
lic-school system  in  your  own  town.  There  may 
be  attached  to  your  own  normal  school  a  kin- 
dergarten course.  At  the  training-school  for 
teachers  in  New  York  City,  and  in  connection 
with  the  Girls'  Normal  School  in  Philadelphia, 
for  instance  there  are  kindergarten  classes, 


204  KINDEEGAETENING 


Here  a  girl  may  quickly  discover  whether  she 
is  fitted  for  the  work.  If  there  is  no  kindergar- 
ten training-school  in  yonr  town,  you  can  at 
least  secure  your  preliminary  high-school  train- 
ing there.  Do  not  imagine  that  you  can  take  a 
home-study  course  in  the  high-school  branches, 
^^cram'^  relentlessly,  and  then  pass  your  pre- 
liminaries. In  rare  cases  a  girl  might  accom- 
plish this  feat,  but  it  is  safer  to  complete  your 
high-school  course  in  the  usual  way. 

If  the  local  board  of  education  offers  you 
nothing  in  kindergarten  training,  then- study  the 
various  fields  carefully  before  you  decide  upon 
a  training-school  away  from  home.  If  possible, 
select  a  schoal  which  is  heavily  endowed  or  con- 
nected with  some  established  university  or  col- 
lege. The  small,  private  training-school  holds 
certain  dangers  for  you.  In  the  first  place,  its 
work  may  not  fit  you  for  the  examination  for 
positions  in  the  public-school  kindergartens, 
and  in  the  second  the  small  kindergarten  train- 
ing-school needs  your  money  more  than  does  the 
endowed  institution,  and  its  principal  may  not 
be  entirely  honest  with  you  regarding  your 
suitability  for  the  work.  By  this  I  mean  that 
at  certain  established  institutions  or  training- 
schools  your  work  from  the  very  start  is 
watched  very  carefully,  and  if  you  show  that 
you  are  eminently  unsuited  to  the  work  and  the 
jnoney  which  you  would  spend  upon  your  tui- 


KINDERGAETENING  205 


tion  would  be  wasted,  you  will  be  told  so  frank- 
ly, and  advised  to  give  it  up,  and  even  the  fees 
you  have  paid  in  advance  will  be  refunded  to 
you.  On  the  other  hand,  a  training-school 
which  is  not  endowed  needs  every  cent  it  can 
secure  from  pupils,  and  the  principal  will  often 
permit  a  girl  to  continue  the  work,  knowing  that 
her  diploma  will  not  insure  her  a  position,  and 
that  the  first  supervisor  under  whom  she  works 
will  mark  her  deficiencies. 

Many  girls  from  small  towns  write  to  me 
after  this  fashion: 

have  met  a  lady  who  runs  a  kindergarten 
here.  She  has  a  nice  little  school  of  her  own, 
and  she  thinks  I  would  make  a  fitne  teacher.  She 
has  offered  to  teach  me  the  work  very  reason- 
ably. Do  you  think  I  could  secure  a  city  posi- 
tion after  taking  such  a  trianing??' 

It  would  be  impossible  to  advise  any  girl  to 
take  such  a  course  of  training  without  knowing 
the  kindergartner  who  has  offered  her  the 
course  at  reduced  rates.  She  may  be  a  kinder- 
garten enthusiast  who  has  faith  in  her  would-be 
pupil,  sufficient  faith  to  give  her  the  training 
for  practically  nothing.  Perhaps  she  wishes  to 
train  the  girl  as  her  assistant.  In  either  case 
she  will  see  that  her  pupil  is  trained  as  thor- 
oughly as  she  was  herself.  But  it  is  a  matter 
of  regret  that  many  such  offers  are  founded  on 
the  need  of  earning  extra  money;  and  the  girl 


206  KINDERGAETENING 


who  accepts  them  secures  only  a  smattering  of 
kindergarten  methods  and  never  gets  to  the 
root  of  Froebel  philosophy. 

^^What  will  the  training  at  a  representative 
school  cost  me  r '  inquire  many  girls. 

At  one  of  the  endowed  institutions  in  the 
East,  of  whose  graduates  ninety-seven  per  cent, 
have  secured  positions,  the  charges  are  twenty- 
five  dollars  per  term,  three  terms  in  the  'year, 
which  means  an  outlay  of  seventy-five  dollars 
per  year  for  tuition.  As  the  course  runs  two 
years,  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  plus  a 
small  sum  for  personal  supplies,  will  cover  the 
actual  expenses  of  tuition.  Pupils  at  this 
school  are  furnished  with  lists  of  boarding- 
houses,  where  they  can  secure  room  and  board 
as  low  as  four  dollars  and  fifty  cents  a  week. 
At  this  rate  a  girPs  living  expenses,  including 
laundry,  will  run  about  three  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  for  two  years.  A  very  strong  girl  can 
reduce  expenses  by  working  in  a  family  night 
and  morning  for  her  board,  but  it  is  better  to 
concentrate  strength  and  interest,  on  your  train- 
ing. The  average  training-school  has  a  daily 
session,  except  Saturdays  and  Sundays,  from 
nine  in  the  morning  to  three  in  the  afternoon, 
with  much  field  work,  visiting  kindergartens 
and  teaching  or  substituting  in  charity  kinder- 
gartens. 

The  girl  who  has  no  money  for  her  training 


KINDEKGAPtTENIN(>  207 


must  simply  find  some  way  of  earning  it.  She 
can  become  a  mother's  helper  and  test  her  pa- 
tience with  children.  Perhaps  this  experience 
may  cure  her  of  any  desire  to  teach  even  in  a 
kindergarten.  If  she  lives  in  a  college  town  she 
can  become  a  caterer  in  a  small  way  and  pre- 
pare college  spreads,"  or  have  a  pretty  tea- 
room in  her  own  home,  where  the  college  girls 
may  drop  in  for  tea,  sweets  and  chat  every  aft- 
ernoon. She  can  do  fine  laundry  work  for  col- 
lege girls,  mending,  anything  which  will  allow 
her  to  lay  aside  each  week  a  small  sum  toward 
the  expenses  of  the  coveted  training. 

Other  girls  inquire:  *^If  I  do  take  a  course 
of  training,  how  do  I  know  that  I  can  secure  a 
position?" 

By  the  time  you  have  spent  two  years  in  a 
training-school  you  will  know  where  and  how 
to  secure  a  position.  That  is  one  fruit  of  the 
training.  Furthermore,  promising  teachers 
from  good  schools  are  in  demand.  Authorities 
in  the  work  say  that  for  the  next  twenty-five 
years  kindergartening  will  be  a  profitable  field, 
because  it  will  not  be  overcrowded. 

^^What  salaries  are  paid  kindergartner^  T ' 
ask  other  girls. 

In  Greater  New  York  the  minimum  salary 
paid  kindergartners  in  the  public  schools  is  six 
hundred  dollars.  The  maximum  salary  is 
twelve  hundred  and  forty  dollars.   Salaries  in- 


208  KINDERGAETENING 


cr.ease  with  the  term  of  service.  Supervisors 
and  teachers  for  training-schools  command 
higher  salaries,  and  the  offices  often  go  begging 
for  lack  of  competent  applicants. 

It  is  impossible  to  name  salaries  in  private 
institutions,  as  these  vary  according  to  the 
standing  and  prosperity  of  the  school  and  the 
experience  and  capabilities  of  the  applicant. 
In  addition  to  private  and  public  schools,  free 
kindergarten  associations  and  private  charities 
afford  openings.  These  relieve  the  congested 
condition  in  the  public  schools  and  aim  to  help 
the  child  who  must  be  clothed  and  fed  as  well  as 
taught.  The  summer  vacation  schools  in  large 
cities  offer  opportunities  for  special  work  to 
ambitious  teachers,  and  a  bright  girl  at  a  fash- 
ionable summer  resort  can  easily  form  her  own 
vacation  classes  among  juvenile  guests,  and  by 
working  in  the  morning  earn  enough  to  pay  her 
entire  sununer's  expenses  at  the  hotel. 

Kindergartening  is  a  profession,  but  mere 
knowledge  of  its  philosophy,  theory  and  prac- 
tice will  not  make  for  success.  Often  the  girl 
who  might  be  described  as  a  born  kindergart- 
ner  is  outstripped  by  a  girl  who  has  less  ground- 
ing in  the  philosophy  but  a  better  developed 
business  instinct.  Of  all  branches  of  pedagogy, 
probably  kindergartening  offers  the  surest  ave- 
nue to  economic  independence,  for  it  takes  less 
capital  to  start  a  kindergarten  than  a  full- 


KINDEEGARTENING  209 


fledged  private  school  with  many  departments. 
The  girl  who  wants  to  be  her  own  mistress  can 
become  so  through  kindergartening — if  she 
combines  thorough  training  with  good  business 
management. 


CHAPTEE  XVI 


DOMESTIC  SCIENCE  TOE  TEACHEKS  AND  SOCIAL 
WOKKEKS 

In  planning  a  future  of  self-support  a  girl 
will  do  well  to  choose  a  trade  or  profession 
which  is  as  yet  uncrowded.  She  will  avoid  any 
field  already  filled  to  overflowing,  all  work  to 
which  other  girls  flock  not  by  scores  but  by  hun- 
dreds, thereby  reducing  not  only  the  number  of 
openings,  but  the  standard  of  wages.  She 
should  not  be  content  to  study  the  various  lines 
of  work  for  women  as  they  appear  to-day,  but 
as  they  will  look  a  year,  five  years,  ten  years 
from  now. 

This  is  particularly  true  of  the  girl  who  plans 
to  engage  in  educational  or  social  work.  Spe- 
cialization and  success  are  synonymous  terms 
for  the  teacher  or  the  philanthropic  worker, 
but  specialization  in  any  study  which  may  be 
discarded  or  abbreviated  in  public  or  private 
schools  during  the  next  five  years  is  sheer  waste 
of  time. 

Before  taking  any  special  course  of  training 

210 


DOMESTIC  SCIENCE  211 


as  a  teacher  or  social  worker,  study  the  tenden- 
cies of  the  schools  or  charities  in  that  State 
where  you  expect  to  find  employment.  The 
newer  educational  movement  is  toward  a  re- 
adjustment of  the  curriculum  to  meet  the 
peculiar  needs  of  the  twentieth-century  child. 
Those  who  lead  the  movement  maintain  that  we 
have  been  teaching  the  child  how  to  study,  but 
not  how  to  live.  We  have  been  giving  him  the 
right  view-point  for  studying  books,  but  the 
wrong  methods  of  meeting  life's  stern  prob- 
lems. Educational  prophets  predict  that  dur- 
ing the  next  five  years  courses  of  study  will 
fall  like  so  many  card-houses,  and  from  the 
ruins  will  rise  a  beautiful  new  structure  of 
practical  schoolroom  work  in  which  hands  and 
bodies,  as  well  as  minds,  will  be  trained. 

One  result  of  the  new  eductional  movement  is 
a  general  awakening  to  the  importance  of  in- 
troducing the  domestic  arts  into  public  and  pri- 
vate schools.  Dressmaking,  millinery,  cookery, 
laundry  work,  general  housekeeping  and  the 
care  of  children  and  the  sick  will  soon  become 
features  of  every  course  in  both  city  and  rural 
schools.  Whether  it  is  true  or  not  that  the  mod- 
ern mother  no  longer  trains  her  daughter  in 
the  domestic  arts  and  that  the  girl  must  be 
taught  home-making  in  the  schoolroom  or  not 
at  all,  is  a  question  quite  apart  from  this  chap- 
ter, but  the  fact  remains  that  any  girl  who  has 


212  DOMESTIC  SCIENCE 


domestic  instincts  and  the  time  to  specialize  as 
a  teacher  or  a  social  worker,  will  make  no  mis- 
take in  taking  a  course  in  domestic  science  or  the 
domestic  arts. 

Such  workers  are  now  in  very  serious  demand 
and  will  be  until  the  oncoming  army  of  teach- 
ers realizes  the  importance  of  substituting 
such  practical  branches  for  the  old  classical  or 
academic  branches.  Graduates  from  schools  of 
domestic  science  or  the  domestic  arts  have  no 
trouble  in  securing  positions  to-day.  In  fact, 
the  position  seeks  the  graduate  if  she  has  made 
any  sort  of  record  in  the  training-school. 
Boards  of  education  all  over  the  country  and 
principals  of  private  schools  are  looking  for 
earnest  teachers  and  supervisors,  and  one  great 
mid- West  city  has  announced  that  it  will  pay 
three  thousand  a  year  to  the  right  woman  for 
the  post  of  supervisor  of  domestic  arts  in  its 
public  schools. 

Ten  years  from  now  domestic  science  may 
be  an  overcrowded  field.  To-day  it  is  practically 
uncultivated  and  offers  many  opportunities 
to  the  woman  who  takes  special  training  along 
that  line. 

The  graduate  from  a  training-school  for 
teachers  like  Teachers  College,  connected  with 
Columbia  University,  New  York,  Pratt  Institute^ 
Brooklyn,  or  Simmons  College,  Boston,  is  eli- 
gible for  the  position  of  teacher  or  supervisor 


DOMESTIC  SCIENCE  213 


in  city  or  country  schools,  or  she  may  become 
matron  of  an  institution,  such  as  a  home  or 
orphanage  or  asylum  or  hospital;  or  she  may 
teach  domestic  arts  in  settlement  houses,  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association  classes,  girls' 
friendly  clubs,  etc.,  or  she  may  establish  herself 
as  a  private  teacher  and  demonstrator  of  cook- 
ery and  dietetics,  and  travel  from  city  to  city, 
organizing  classes.  The  domestic  arts  are  on 
the  verge  of  a  revival,  and  rich  and  poor  alike 
will  come  under  the  spell. 

First — Domestic  science  for  teachers* 
Every  first-class  school  of  domestic  science  de- 
mands as  the  entrance  qualification  a  high-school 
education  or  its  equivalent.  This  means  that 
it  is  practically  useless  for  a  girl  who  has  never 
gone  beyond  the  eighth  grade  to  apply  for  en- 
trance into  a  college  where  domestic  science  is 
taught  as  a  special  course.  The  course  general- 
ly occupies  two  years,  and  the  minimum  cost  of 
tuition  is  twenty-five  dollars  per  term,  three 
terms  in  a  year,  or  $150  in  all.  During  the  first 
year  the  pupil  studies  elementary  sewing,  draw- 
ing and  other  manual  arts,  as  well  as  various 
kitchen  accomplishments,  such  as  cookery,  serv- 
ing, laundry  work,  etc.  At  the  end  of  the  first 
year  the  student  elects  to  specialize  either  on 
advanced  domestic  science  alone  or  on  advanced 
arts,  such  as  dressmaking,  millinery,  basket- 
weaving,  etc. 


214  DOMESTIC  SCIENCE 


Those  who  elect  domestic  art  must  have 
shown  during  the  first  year  more  than  ordinary 
artistic  ability  and  hand  skill,  and  they  are  pre- 
pared upon  graduation  to  teach  elementary  and 
advanced  handwork,  sewing,  dressmaking,  mil- 
linery, embroidery  and  elementary  cookery. 

Those  who  elect  domestic  science  are  pre- 
pared to  teach  cookery,  dietetics,  marketing, 
serving,  household  accounts,  household  econom- 
ics, including  cleaning,  laundry  work  and  hygi- 
ene and  sanitation  for  the  elementary,  grammar 
a*nd  high,  public  and  private  schools,  colleges 
and  technical  schools,  including  training-schools 
for  nurses;  to  be  dietitians,  supervising  insti- 
tutional housekeepers  and  caterers ;  instructors 
in  elementary  domestic  art  (handwork,  includ- 
ing braiding,  knotting,  netting,  crocheting,  knit- 
ting, weaving,  caning,  basketry,  hand  and  ma- 
chine sewing,  drafting  and  household  furnish- 
ing) for  the  elementary  and  grammar,  public 
and  private  schools,  and  wherever  else  elemen- 
tary domestic  art  is  taught. 

To  the  uninitiated  it  would  seem  as  if  very 
little  difference  existed  between  the  two  courses, 
but  in  reality  the  domestic-science  course  ap- 
peals most  strongly  to  the  practical  girl;  do- 
mestic arts  to  the  artistic  or  theoretical  mind. 

Salaries  for  this  work  vary.  At  an  orphan 
asylum  in  New  York  City  a  teacher  of  domestic 
science  or  cookery  receives  thirty  dollars  per 


DOMESTIC  SCIENCE  215 


montli,  in  addition  to  being  furnished  witli  a 
nice  private  room  and  excellent  board,  and  she 
is  permitted  to  teach  a  private  class  ontside  the 
orphanage  one  afternoon  in  the  week.  A  teacher 
of  cooking,  serving  and  domestic  science  in  its 
elementary  form  in  one  of  the  model  schools  re- 
ceives fifty  dollars  per  month,  while  the  super- 
vising teacher  of  domestic  arts,  including  many; 
forms  of  manual  training  for  boys  and  girls,  is 
paid  $1,200  per  year. 

Positions  as  teachers  of  domestic  science  pre- 
suppose city  life,  and  the  country  girl  who  has 
decided  to  take  this  course  must  realize  that 
any  position  offered  to  her  on  graduation  will 
entail  her  remaining  in  the  city. 

While  not  mentioned  in  the  catalogue  of  any 
college,  university  or  institute,  the  study  of  do- 
mestic science  includes  the  development  of  the 
business  instinct.  Long  before  a  student  re- 
ceives her  diploma  she  realizes  that  she  requires 
something  beside  mere  knowledge  to  advance  in 
her  profession.  She  must  have  ^^push"  if  she 
will  secure  a  desirable  position  and  rise  to  the 
post  of  supervisor. 

The  private  teacher  of  domestic  science  must 
overcome  the  prejudice  of  old-fashioned  parents 
and  the  indifference  of  society-absorbed  young 
women  before  she  can  hope  to  organize  her 
class.   She  must  develop  some  novel  scheme  of 


216  DOMESTIC  SCIENCE 


instruction  or  surround  herself  with  some  un- 
usual environment  before  she  can  attract  the 
attention  of  matrons  for  whom  the  ordinary 
cooking-class  has  lost  its  charm»  In  one  fash- 
ionable suburban  town,  a  clever  graduate,  who 
had  sent  out  circulars  in  vain,  deserted  the 
kitchen  of  her  mother^  where  she  had  expected 
to  teach,  and  rented  a  quaint,  old-fashioned  cot- 
tage, furnishing  living-room,  dining-room  and 
kitchen  with  the  last  remnant  of  her  inheri- 
tance. The  living-room  was  for  afternoon  tea, 
the  dining-room  for  luncheons,  and  the  kitchen, 
furnished  in  Delft  effects,  was  for  lectures  and 
demonstrations.  In  her  tea  and  lunch-rooms  she 
offered  such  dainty  refreshments  and  such  odd 
food  combinations  that  pupils  flocked  to  her 
lectures.  She  admits  that  had  she  sought  to 
establish  herself  by  ordinary  methods  she  might 
have  failed. 

Another  lecturer  on  domestic  science  has  ac- 
quired great  popularity  in  various  States  be- 
cause of  her  apparent  enthusiasm  for  the  dishes 
for  which  each  community  is  famous.  In  reali- 
ty she  is  simply  tactful  and  diplomatic.  While 
she  taught  Northern  cookery  to  Southern  wom- 
en, and  vice  versa,  she  left  the  impression  that, 
after  all,  the  specialties  of  each  city  or  com- 
munity were  far  superior  to  anything  she  hacJ 
to  offer.  While  she  praised  chicken  gumbo  in 
New  Orleans,  she  did  not  pretend  to  teach  her 


DOMESTIC  SCIENCE  217 


class  of  Southerners  how  to  make  gumbo,  but 
she  did  manage  to  secure  many  an  old  family 
recipe  to  bring  back  to  her  Northern  pupils. 
When  she  found  that  in  certain  cities  mistresses 
of  homes  took  no  interest  in  cookery  or  dietetics, 
she  quickly  announced  classes  for  servants,  and 
wealthy  women  subscribed  in  large  numbers 
and  sent  their  maids  to  the  lectures. 

In  a  mid- West  city,  a  pioneer  in  domestic 
science  tried  in  vain  to  establish  herself  as  a 
lecturer  and  demonstrator,  and  finally  when  a 
salary  of  five  dollars  per  week  looked  very  de- 
sirable to  her  she  accepted  an  offer  from  an 
editor  of  a  local  paper  to  conduct  a  household 
column  on  his  woman's  page  two  days  in  each 
week.  Women  began  to  write  to  her  for  advice 
on  household  questions,  and  she  answered  their 
questions  conscientiously,  in  a  happy,  personal 
vein.  To-day  she  has  all  the  cooking  classes 
she  can  handle,  drawn  largely  from  the  ranks 
of  the  very  women  who  had  tossed  her  neatly- 
engraved  announcement  cards  into  the  waste- 
basket.  Another  Western  student  of  domestic 
science  is  now  State  Inspector  of  Foods. 

For  women  who  wish  to  do,  rather  than  to 
teach,  there  is  offered  a  special  course,  one  year 
in  length,  known  as  the  course  in  dietetics  and 
housekeeping,  designed  to  prepare  women  to 
become  dietitians,  matrons  and  skilled  house- 
keepers for  institutions.   I  quote  from  a  cata- 


218  DOMESTIC  SCIENCE 


logne  of  a  school  whose  graduates  are  in  great 
demand : 

^^It  is  essential  that  the  applicants  who  desire 
to  be  dietitians,  matrons  or  professional  house- 
keepers be  mature  women  of  fair  general  train- 
ing, with  executive  ability,  experience  in  life, 
skill  in  practical  housework,  physical  strength 
and  endurance.  Only  such  women  as  possess 
these  qualifications,  which  are  necessary  ele- 
ments of  success  in  housekeeping,  are  advised  to 
take  this  training  for  professional  use.'' 

This  course  prescribes  two  terms,  three 
months  each,  of  student  work  in  the  school,  and 
three  months  of  probationary  professional  serv- 
ice in  any  institution  where  the  candidate  for 
a  certificate  can  find  employment.  In  this  re- 
spect it  resembles  the  probationary  period  of 
the  trained  nurse.  Among  the  studies  are  prin- 
ciples of  cookery,  dietetics,  marketing,  serving 
and  accounts,  physiology,  chemistry,  physical 
training,  diet  for  children,  diet  for  invalids, 
laundry  work,  household  economics,  fancy  cook- 
ery, dietaries  for  families  and  general  house- 
hold sanitation. 

Graduates  from  this  one-year  course  are  fre- 
quently employed  as  matrons  in  schools,  homes 
and  hospitals,  where  sanitary  kitchens  and 
properly  prepared  food  are  essential  to  the  good 
health  of  the  institution. 


DOMESTIC  SCIENCE  219 


Women  often  ask :  ^^But  how  do  I  know  that 
I  can  secure  a  position  after  I  graduate?" 

In  learning  any  trade,  there  comes  to  you 
gradually  the  knowledge  of  how  to  secure  work. 
It  is  part  of  your  training.  The  modern  school 
is  a  veritable  clearing-house  of  energies,  and 
in  this  process  the  girl  who  has  graduated  from 
a  school  with  credit  to  herself  and  her  alma 
mater  generally  steps  directly  into  a  position. 
But  you  must  bear  in  mind  that  there  are  some 
women  who,  with  a  diploma  in  one  hand  and  a 
bunch  of  influential  letters  in  the  other,  would 
fail  to  secure  a  position  because  they  lack  per- 
sonality. Diplomas  must  have  the  backing  of 
patience,  personality,  enthusiasm  and  an  ear- 
nest desire  to  ^*make  good"  in  the  first  opening 
that  comes  your  way. 

If  you  lack  the  ability  to  make  friends,  and 
the  gift  of  organization,  do  not  study  domestic 
science  even  to  become  a  matron.  The  matron 
must  organize  a  staff  of  servants  and  maintain 
discipline.  She  must  know  that  others  are  do- 
ing their  work  properly,  rather  than  drop  into 
small  routine  duties  herself.  She  must  be  dig- 
nified yet  show  by  her  instructions  that  she 
could  do  every  stroke  of  the  work  herself. 

^'What  will  the  complete  course  in  domestic 
science,  including  board,  cost?"  inquire  many 
correspondents. 

That  depends  entirely  upon  the  girl,  her  tastes 


220  DOMESTIC  SCIENCE 


and  her  mode  of  living.  The  tuition  (minimum) 
averages  $75  per  year  of  three  terms.  Board 
at  $6  per  week  can  be  obtained  in  the  neighbor- 
hood of  the  average  institution  where  domestic 
science  is  taught,  and  this  for  the  average 
school-year  of  nine  months  or  thirty-eight  weeks 
would  amount  to  $228.  There  will  be  some  in- 
cidental expenses,  such  as  visiting  institutions 
to  study  domestic  economics  in  actual  opera- 
tion, outside  lectures,  etc.  A  graduate  of  such 
a  course  tells  me  that  each  pupil  should  allow 
at  least  $10  a  week  for  board,  clothing  and  in- 
cidental expenses. 


CHAPTER  XVII 


PHYSICAL  CULTUBE  PLUS  DANCING  AND  ELOCUTION 

Physical  culture,  like  domestic  science,  is 
one  of  the  teaching  branches  which  any  girl  who 
desires  to  specialize  should  consider  for  the 
good  of  both  her  purse  and  her  health.  It  pre- 
sents a  field  as  yet  uncrowded.  As  a  special 
study  it  has  its  place  not  only  in  public  and  pri- 
vate schools,  but  it  is  right  in  line  with  all  the 
new  social  and  charitable  movements,  recrea- 
tion parks  and  centers  and  public  playgrounds, 
as  well  as  the  institutional  church.  It  is  par- 
ticularly in  demand  at  schools  for  deficient  chil- 
dren, where  teachers  are  paid  exceptionally 
good  salaries.  It  is  ideal  work  for  the  girl 
whose  health  will  endirre  neither  long  hours  of 
confinement  nor  great  nervous  strain,  and  will, 
if  combined  with  outdoor  life,  check  incipient 
tuberculosis.  Especially  does  it  appeal  as  a 
source  of  income  to  the  girl  who  does  not  want 
to  leave  her  home  city  to  face  the  overwhelming 
competition  of  the  larger  centers  of  population. 
The  girl  with  a  large  circle  of  friends,  the  charm 

221 


222  PHYSICAL  CULTURE 


of  personality  and  a  reasonable  amount  of  train- 
ing in  a  good  system  of  physical  culture  can 
always  make  a  moderate  living  in  Iier  home 
town. 

Just  at  present  there  is  also  a  very  brisk  de- 
mand for  the  teacher  who  combines  with  a 
knowledge  of  physical  culture  ability  to  teach 
dancing.  In  all  the  larger  cities  dancing,  espe- 
cially folk-dances,  is  being  introduced  into  the 
public  schools,  recreation  centers  and  play- 
grounds. This  requires  special  training,  but  to 
the  girl  who  has  already  mastered  physical 
culture  it  will  come  quite  easily. 

Girls  who  think  they  would  like  to  teach  physi- 
cal culture  must  first  consider  in  what  way  they 
will  utilize  the  specialty.  The  girl  who  hopes 
to  teach  in  public  or  private  schools  will  have 
to  take  a  complete  normal  course,  and  a  college 
degree  will  be  most  helpful  in  her  advance  to 
the  post  of  supervisor.  In  many  cities  it  will 
be  essential.  On  the  other  hand,  if  she  pro- 
poses to  organize  small  private  classes,  com- 
bining dancing  with  physical  culture,  an  abbre- 
viated but  earnest  and  thorough  course,  prefer- 
ably with  a  good  private  teacher,  will  suffice, 
providing  always  that  the  girl  continues  to  read 
and  study  every  good  work  obtainable  that  deals 
with  her  specialty.  Especially  her  studies  of 
anatomy  must  be  persevering  and  unceasing. 

In  New  York  City  to-day  sixty  teachers  are 


PHYSICAL  CULTURE  223 


employed  to  train  the  children  of  the  public  j 
schools  in  physical  culture.  In  the  primary  ^| 
schools  these  teachers  draw  from  eight  hundred  ] 
dollars  to  fifteen  hundred  dollars,  and  in  the  i 
high-school  grades  from  fifteen  hundred  dollars  I 
to  three  thousand  dollars  a  year.  In  New  York  | 
City  the  private  schools  were  pioneers  in  this  ] 
work,  until  what  was  considered  as  the  privi-  { 
lege  of  the  rich  child  was  recognized  as  a  ] 
necessity  for  the  masses  of  children  who  had  \ 
to  be  taught  the  use  and  care  of  the  body  as  well  ] 
as  the  mind.  i 

Private  teaching  in  New  York  is  also  lucra-  j 
tive.  It  is  estimated  that  there  are  twenty-one  ! 
hundred  classes  all  told  under  the  direction  of  | 
fifteen  hundred  teachers,  men  as  well  as  women.  j 
These  classes  are  conducted  at  private  schools  | 
and  in  gymnasiums,  including  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  | 
and  Y.  W.  C.  A.  rooms  and  the  settlements  and  1 
parish  houses  of  institutional  churches.  Pre-  \ 
sumably  each  of  these  fifteen  hundred  teachers  ] 
makes  a  comfortable  living,  whether  by  teach-  \ 
ing  physical  culture  alone  or  by  combining  other  | 
special  branches  with  it.  Also  the  same  teacher  \ 
conducts  classes  in  different  schools,  clubs  or  j 
settlements,  arranging  a  schedule  of  hours.  i 

In  order  to  teach  physical  culture  in  the  pub-  j 
lie  schools  of  New  York  City  you  must  have  had  | 
three  years'  experience  as  a  teacher  before  you  ] 
can  take  the  entrance  examinations.    The  ob-  i 


m  PHYSICAL  CULTURE 


3*ect  of  tMs  rule  is  to  maintain  as  high  a  stand- 
ard for  the  teacher  of  physical  culture  as  for 
any  other  branch  of  study.  To  secure  positions 
in  many  of  the  private  schools  you  must  have  a 
college  education,  precisely  as  would  be  re- 
quired of  a  teacher  of  Latin,  Greek  or  algebra. 
In  other  words,  your  education  must  be  broad 
and  liberal  enough  to  entitle  you  to  considera- 
tion for  any  branch  of  high-school  or  private 
school  teaching.  You  cannot  gloss  over  the  de- 
fects of  a  grade-school  education  by  an  expen- 
sive course  in  physical  culture.  If  you  live  in 
a  community  where  your  certificate  must  be  re- 
newed at  stated  intervals  for  general  teaching, 
the  certificate  will  be  demanded  if  you  try  to 
teach  physical  culture.  This  explanation  is  of- 
fered for  the  benefit  of  the  many  girls  who  think 
that  an  abbreviated  and  defective  education  will 
be  overlooked  because  they  have  taken  a  special 
course  in  physical  culture. 

In  Philadelphia  physical  training  is  part  of 
the  normal  course  for  girls,  and  is  taught  in  all 
the  public  schools.  In  that  city  preference  is 
given  to  graduates  from  the  normal  college. 
Chicago,  Boston,  in  fact  all  the  leading  cities, 
have  made  physical  training  part  of  their  pub- 
lic-school system,  and  all  progressive  small 
cities  are  following  suit.  A  prominent  teacher 
of  physical  culture  states  that  he  has  requests 
/  from  small  cities  the  country  over  for  teachers 


PHYSICAL  CULTURE  225 


ana  supervisors,  and  that  the  girl  who  is  willing 
to  go  to  one  of  these  smaller  cities  and  lead  the 
movement  in  favor  of  physical  culture  can  even- 
tually become  supervisor  of  the  entire  work  in 
the  public  schools. 

Naturally  the  teacher  of  physical  culture  who 
accepts  a  position  in  a  public  or  private  school 
at  a  stated  salary  enjoys  a  certain  sense  of 
financial  security,  and  this  step  is  generally 
taken  by  women  qualified  to  hold  positions  in 
either  public  or  private  schools.  On  the  other 
hand,  some  girls  who  have  completed  only  a 
desultory  course  at  a  so-called  finishing  school 
but  who  are  bright  and  well  educated,  through 
reading  and  observation,  have  taken  up  the 
study  of  physical  culture  thoroughly  and  have, 
succeeded  as  private  teachers. 

The  teacher  who  free-lances,^'  or  organizes 
her  own  classes,  must  summon  personality  to 
her  aid.  She  must  make  a  strong  appeal  for  her 
work,  interest  editors  of  local  papers  in  physical 
training,  and  establish  herself  largely  through 
the  pleasing  impression  she  creates.  Later  her 
methods  of  teaching  may  be  commended.  Her 
training  of  young  people  may  show  results.  But 
at  first  she  will  win  out  on  purely  personal 
grounds. 

I  recall  a  young  woman  who  made  just  such 
a  struggle  in  a  small  Ohio  city.  She  started  out 


226  PHYSICAL  CULTURE 


with  four  pupils,  two  of  those  being  children  of 
a  local  physician,  who  recommended  her  class 
to  patients  with  growing  children  in  the  family. 
Skillfully  she  mixed  pleasure  with  physical  cul- 
ture, took  her  pupils  on  walking  trips,  with 
nature  talks  on  the  side,  arranged  games  to  be 
played  after  the  lessons^  and  in  fact  scored  a 
social  success  among  young  people. 

Gradually  her  class  grew,  because  children 
wanted  to  share  the  good  times.  Then  she  of- 
fered to  supervise  an  entertainment  for  local 
charity,  and  for  this  purpose  drilled  a  number 
of  the  elder  brothers  and  sisters  of  her  pupils. 
The  drill  was  a  success,  and  while  the  enter- 
tainment did  not  net  her  enough  money  to  pay 
for  the  many  rehearsals,  it  introduced  her  work 
to  the  general  public  and  started  an  advance 
class.  She  worked  in  this  fashion,  barely 
making  a  living,  for  nearly  two  years,  and  then 
public  sentiment  demanded  that  she  be  given  a 
chance  to  introduce  physical  training  in  the  pub- 
lic schools.  I  cite  this  instance  particularly  to 
show  that  physical  culture  opens  up  possibili- 
ties in  almost  any  city  for  the  woman  with  suf- 
ficient force  of  character  and  personality  to 
make  her  influence  felt. 

The  teacher  of  physical  culture  who  is  a  recog- 
nized authority  in  her  community  has  no  finan- 
cial problems  to  solve.  If  an  appointee  in  the 


PHYSICAL  CULTURE 


227 


public  scHools,  she  has  many  opportunities  to 
form  evening  classes  among  adults  or  teachers 
who  desire  to  perfect  themselves  in  this  branch 
of  teaching.  She  is  invited  to  lecture  for  a  fee 
during  the  winter  in  her  own  and  neighboring 
towns,  and  she  can  accept  engagements,  if  she 
so  desires,  for  summer  schools,  etc. 

A  complete  normal  course  in  physical  culture 
or  elocution  occupies  two  years.  Special 
courses  are  given  in  both  branches,  but  in  physi- 
cal-culture training  particularly,  a  class  course 
with  regular  practice  is  almost  essential.  A 
typical  two-year  course  includes  the  following 
branches,  and  costs  three  hundred  dollars: 


THEOBY 


Anatomy- 
Apparatus. 
Athletics. 
Anthropometry. 
Child  Study. 
Chemistry. 
Eduction. 
Histology. 
Kinesiology. 
Methods. 
Physics. 
Physiology. 


and  Physical  Training. 
Psychology. 
First  Aid. 
Physical  Diagnosis. 
Gymnasium  Administra- 


History    of  Gymnastics 


tion. 

Public-school  Methods. 
Personal    and  School 


Hygiene. 


228  PHYSICAL  CULTURE 


PRACTICE 

Apparatus  (light 
and  heavy). 

Athletics. 

Delsarte. 

Calisthenics. 

Swedish  Gymnas- 
tics. 

The  average  pupil  allows  ten  dollars  a  week 
for  board,  laundry  and  incidental  expenses,  in 
addition  to  the  three  hundred  dollars  tuition. 
Girls  often  ask  whether  they  can  earn  at  least 
part  of  their  training,  and  the  head  of  one  of 
the  most  successful  training-schools  tells  me 
that  a  number  of  girls  have  paid  their  way  by 
teaching  outside  classhours,  the  compensation 
being  two  dollars  an  hour.  Naturally,  it  takes  a 
bright,  tactful,  pleasing  girl  to  secure  this  work. 

Now  as  to  securing  positions  after  taking  the 
course.  The  incidents  related  in  preceding 
pages  tell  part  of  the  tale,  particularly  for  the 
girl  who  intends  to  form  private  classes.  A  posi- 
tion usually  awaits  the  graduate  of  a  normal 
course  or  school  of  high  standing,  as  the  number 
of  cities  introducing  physical  training  in  the 
public  schools  increases  each  year,  and  it  will  be 
some  years  before  the  supply  equals  the  demand. 

The  girl  who  wishes  to  teach  in  private 
schools  usually  secures  work  through  a  teach- 


Anthropometry. 
Voice  Culture. 
Fencing. 

Esthetic  Gymnastics. 
Games. 


PHYSICAL  CULTUEE  229 


ers'  agency.  Positions  in  institutional  churches, 
settlements  and  among  wealthy  children  or 
women  who  will  join  classes  in  light  physical 
culture  are  secured  entirely  through  acquaint- 
ance and  influence. 

The  teacher  who  drops  general  work  for 
physical  culture,  with  a  view  to  teaching  in  the 
public  schools,  particularly  of  a  large  city,  con- 
fines her  efforts  to  this  one  branch.  The  girl 
who  expects  to  organize  private  classes  or  con- 
duct classes  in  different  private  schools,  settle- 
ments or  institutional  churches  generally  com- 
bines some  other  branch  with  physical  culture, 
such  as  cooking,  sewing  or  elocution.  The  lat- 
ter is  peculiarly  suited  for  combination  with 
physical  culture,  as  the  physical  training  gives 
grace  to  gestures,  and  a  correct  method  of 
breathing  is  invaluable  to  the  pupil  in  elocution ; 
in  fact,  nearly  every  successful  teacher  of  elo- 
cution includes  in  her  class  or  private  work  sim- 
ple gymnmastics^  and  Delsarte  exercises.  Just 
now  dancing  movements  and  steps  play  a  large 
part  in  physical  culture  and  elocution. 

If,  in  addition  to  teaching  the  conventional 
elocution,  she  has  the  gift  of  story-telling,  a 
girl  can  often  secure  engagements  to  entertain 
at  parties. 

Another  line  of  work  in  which  up-to-date  elo- 
cution and  physical  culture  teachers  are  scoring 
rather  heavily  this  year  is  known  as  the  general 


230  PHYSICAL  CULTUEE 


culture  class — teaching  young  girls  how  to  enter 
and  leave  a  room,  how  to  carry  themselves,  how 
to  sit  correctly,  how  to  meet  strangers,  how  to 
cultivate  a  pleasing  speaking  voice,  how  to  con- 
verse on  general  topics.  This  appeals  to-  many 
girls  who  would  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  appeal 
of  physical  culture  or  elocution  alone. 

The  girl  from  a  small  city  or  town  who  goes 
to  a  larger  center  to  secure  her  training  in  physi- 
cal culture  and  who  has  a  year's  time  and  the 
funds  to  spare,  should  study  dancing  or  elocu- 
tion also.  Armed  with  two  specialties,  she  can 
appeal  to  a  larger  proportion  of  the  young  peo- 
ple in  her  home  town  and  its  environs  than  if 
she  were  limited  to  one  sort  of  class  work.  With 
good  instructors  and  her  own  concentration  on 
the  task  to  be  accomplished,  she  can  return  home 
at  the  end  of  a  year  entirely  capable  of  making 
her  own  way.  As  I  have  said  so  often  in  the 
course  of  this  work,  success  lies  in  the  girl  as 
much  as  in  the  amount  of  her  training.  The 
head  of  a  normal  training-school  of  physical  cul- 
ture has  pointed  out  to  me  student-workers  in 
their  third  year  who  were  not  yet  capable  of 
leading  a  class,  yet  his  course  is  supposed  to 
occupy  only  two  school  years.  Again,  when  a 
student  has  met  with  reverses  after  the  first 
year,  with  a  few  additional  private  lessons  she 
has  been  able  to  leave  the  school  and  teach  with 
success. 


PHYSICAL  CULTURE  231 


The  same  is  true  of  elocution  and  dancing. 
Some  girls  go  to  a  dancing-class  year  after  year 
and  never  acquire  knowledge  of  the  principles 
on  which  the  art  is  founded.  They  may  be 
graceful  dancers  but  utterly  unable  to  give  in- 
struction. Another  girl  with  less  natural  ability 
but  more  genuine  desire  to  succeed  will  be  teach- 
ing children's  classes  while  the  others  are  still 
working.  A  girl  who  must  teach  elocution  with- 
in a  given  time  will  walk  straight  past  the  girl 
whose  father  has  the  funds  to  give  her  an  in- 
definite course  of  study  and  who  likes  to  go  back 
to  the  school^  season  after  seasoa. 

In  a  small  city,  dancing-lessons  can  some- 
times be  organized  more  easily  than  those  in 
physical  culture.  The  latter  classes  are  often 
less  attractive  to  young  people,  but  the  teacher 
must  never  give  up  her  aim,  i.e.,  to  introduce 
physical  culture  into  her  community  and  create 
a  demand  for  it  in  the  public  schools. 

The  young  woman  starting  her  first  dancing- 
class  should  select  a  hall  with  discretion,  al- 
ways giving  her  class  a  certain  social  standing. 
A  large  private  parlor,  with  waxed  floor  or  can- 
vased  carpet  is  preferable  to  a  cheap  hall  in  a 
questionable  neighborhood.  The  girl  without 
great  influence  will  do  well  to  secure  social  lead- 
ers as  her  patronesses  and  give  a  series  of 
dances  during  the  season  which  will  have  a  little 


232  PHYSICAL  CULTURE 


air  of  exclnsiveness.  Some  teachers  eail  tHese 
cotillon  clubs,  dances  de  luxe,  etc. 

In  starting  her  classes,  the  newcomer  should 
teach  adults  the  round  and  square  dances,  with 
an  occasional  special  event,  like  a  cotillon  with 
inexpensive  favors.  The  children — and  their 
mothers — will  want  to  have  fancy  dancing  in- 
cluded in  the  afternoon's  work.  A  girl  who  has 
not  enough  classes  to  keep  her  busy  in  her  own 
town  may  be  able  to  go  to  smaller  towns  within 
commuting  distance  for  weekly  or  semi-weekly 
lessons. 

The  girl  who  combines  elocution  with  physical 
culture  must  be  resourceful  and  able  to  arrange 
amateur  entertainments  that  give  pupils  a 
chance  to  appear  with  credit,  and  parents  and 
friends  an  opportunity  to  admire  and  applaud. 
The  girl  who  can  stage-manage  or  produce 
small  plays  and  allow  other  local  talent  to  shine 
therein  is  very  much  more  apt  to  succeed  than 
the  girl  who  casts  herself  for  the  star  role. 
Upon  such  little  evidences  of  tact  and  good  will 
does  the  teacher  of  physical  culture  and  dancing 
or  elocution  build  up  remunerative  classes. 
They  are  to  be  found  in  nearly  all  small  cities, 
especially  in  the  mid- West,  West  and  South- 
west. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 


THE  GIBL  AND  THE  PEN 

The  girl  with  literary  ambitions  belongs  to 
one  of  two  classes.  Either  she  thinks  she  could 
earn  her  living  at  home,  by  writing  for  maga- 
zines, or  she  wants  to  become  a  journalist." 

The  profession  of  letters  is  broad  and  liberal. 
It  presupposes  a  college  education — ^yet  I  have 
known  girls  to  graduate  from  the  eighth  grade 
into  the  short-story  field,  because  they  found  in- 
spiration and  help  in  the  English  masterpieces 
which  they  read  after  working  hours.  It  pre- 
supposes leisure,  elegant  surroundings,  and  a 
restful  environment,  and  yet  one  of  the  daintiest 
fairy-tales  I  ever  read  was  penned  by  a  woman 
between  the  time  that  she  sent  five  growing  girls 
off  to  school,  and  the  washing  of  the  breakfast 
dishes.  I  know  of  no  work  in  which  patient,  per- 
sistent, unfailing  effort  and  study  bring  such 
rich  rewards,  because  the  joy  of  giving  birth  to 
a  new  thought  is  equaled  only  by  the  joy  of  the 
mother  in  her  first  born.  The  writer  ex- 
tracts something  more  than  mere  dollars  from 

233 


234      THE  GIEL  AND  THE  PEN 


the  profession  of  letters — the  happiness  pecu- 
liar to  congenial  work,  intensified  by  steady, 
mental  growth,  and  the  development  of  re- 
sources within  herself  which  rescue  her  from 
morbidness,  loneliness  and  selfishness. 

The  successful  writer  must  draw  information 
and  inspiration  from  her  contact  with  human 
nature.  She  must  know  people  in  order  to  write 
of  them,  consequently  she  is  never  self -centered. 
She  may  become  egotistical,  spoiled  by  flattery 
when  success  is  achieved,  but  during  her  pro- 
bation she  is  dependent  upon  her  fellow-men, 
therefore  interested  in  them,  and  so  is  herself 
interesting. 

Against  this  argument  must  be  arraigned  the 
stern  fact  that  the  woman  who  is  entirely  de- 
pendent upon  her  own  efforts  should  not  turn 
to  writing,  even  though  she  may  have  the  gift, 
as  a  profession  in  which  she  can  secure  imme- 
diate returns.  She  must  combine  writing  with 
more  practical  work,  something  that  will  pay 
her  board  and  keep  a  roof  over  her  head  until 
she  wields  the  pen  with  such  dexterity  that 
financial  returns  are  sure  and  regular.  This 
period  varies.  Some  women  suddenly  develop 
a  gift  for  humorous  versification,  epigrammatic 
little  essays,  or  a  new  field  of  fiction,  and  score 
phenomenal  success;  but  as  a  rule  the  history 
of  the  writer  who  builds  a  substantial  success 
reads  far  differently.  My  first  story  was  writ- 


THE  GIRL  AND  THE  PEN  235 


ten — and  promptly  rejected — when  I  was  fif- 
teen. I  drew  my  first  weekly  salary  as  a  writer 
(and  this  on  a  small  country  paper)  when  I 
was  twenty-seven,  yet  during  that  interval  there 
was  never  a  day,  whether  I  was  teaching  school 
or  cooking  for  hired  men  or  catering  to  summer 
boarders,  that  I  did  not  renew  my  determina- 
tion, ofttimes  buried  deep  beneath  piles  of  un- 
washed dishes  and  unironed  clothes,  that  one 
day  I  would  be  financially  independent  througli 
my  writings. 

I  make  this  question  of  financial  independence 
the  goal  toward  which  most  writers  work  be- 
cause it  is  their  real  object,  and  because  most 
of  the  women  who  write  to  me  mention  financial 
burdens  which  they  hope  to  lighten  by  the  aid 
of  their  pens.  This  introduction  has  been  made 
strongly  personal  because  I  kno  w  that  many 
of  my  readers  will  say  that  I  paint  too  disheart- 
ening a  picture  for  the  girl  with  the  pen.  I 
want  each  one  of  these  critics  to  know  that  I 
understand  not  only  just  how  she  feels  in  her 
ambitious,  hopeful  moments,  but  just  how  she 
will  feel  when  manuscript  after  manuscript 
comes  back — ^^Eeturned  with  thanks.'' 

If  the  wolf  is  very  close  to  your  door,  do  not 
try  to  fight  him  with  your  pen.  Better  select 
for  your  weapon  the  needle,  the  frying-pan  or 
the  iron.  He  recognizes  the  power  of  the  pen 
only  when  it  is  wielded  by  an  experienced  hand. 


236      THE  GIEL  AND  THE  PEN 


If  you  are  willing  to  wait  and  work  patiently 
and  to  live  frugally,  then  find  some  regular  oc- 
cupation that  will  occupy  half  or  three-fourths 
of  the  day,  and  devote  the  other  half  or  fourth 
to  writing,  giving  the  early  part  of  the  day  to 
your  pen-work  if  possible.  Depend  upon  serv- 
ing or  teaching  or  nursing,  or  whatever  you  can 
do  well,  to  keep  body  and  soul  together,  and  do 
not  expect  your  pen  to  yield  returns  for  many 
weeks  or  months,  perhaps  years.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  if  you  keep  the  steadfast  faith  with- 
in yourself  that  some  day  you  will  reach  your 
goal,  your  more  practical  work  will  be  made 
lighter  by  your  hours  of  writing,  and  life  will 
be  worth  while. 

First,  cultivate  your  powers  of  observation. 
Keep  your  eyes  open  at  home  and  abroad.  Note 
what  people  around  you  are  doing,  their  pe- 
culiarities of  speech  and  their  mannerisms. 
Study  changes  in  nature's  panorama.  Open 
your  mind  to  outside  influences,  to  the  happiness 
and  the  sorrow  of  those  with  whom  you  come  in 
contact,  so  that  in  time  you  may  express  these 
emotions  in  such  clear  fashion  that  the  world 
of  readers  will  say:  ^'Yes,  I  know  a  woman 
who  acts  just  that  way  when  she  is  frightened, 
or  Why,  I  have  felt  just  like  that  ever  so  many 
times. ' '  You  cannot  picture  human  nature  until 
you  know  it.  The  painter  transfers  to  his  can- 
vas the  thrush  tilting  on  the  swaying  branch; 


THE  GIEL  AND  THE  PEN  237 


the  writer  must  transfer  to  his  sheet  of  paper 
the  soul  swaying  under  emotions. 

Two  home-going  stenographers  from  a  news- 
paper office  passed  a  forlorn  little  figure  sitting 
on  the  edge  of  the  curbing  of  a  city  fountain. 
The  girl's  thin  shoulders  were  shaken  by  silent 
sobs  Her  mouse-like  teeth  were  set  hard  in 
her  thin,  colorless  lips.  The  first  stenographer 
who  passed  did  not  notice  that  the  child  was 
crying.  In  fact,  she  was  thinking  what  a  hot 
day  it  had  been,  and  how  hard  it  was  to  work 
in  a  great  office  amid  the  clickety-click  of  type- 
writers. The  second  girl,  her  eyes  open  to  all 
that  went  on  around  her,  despite  the  heat,  spied 
the  heaving  shoulders,  unlocked  the  hard-set 
lips  and  heard  a  story  which  led  to  the  exposure 
of  a  great  wrong,  which  placed  the  girl  on  the 
staif  of  a  big  paper,  and  which  lifted  her 
protege  above  want  and  misery. 

Which  one  of  those  two  girls  hurrying  away 
from  the  same  office  was  the  born  writer?  Fine 
phrases  alone  will  not  make  a  writer.  You  must 
cultivate  the  knowledge  of  human  nature,  the 
power  of  observation  and  the  ability  to  put  this 
combination  of  knowledge  and  observation  into 
a  word  form  which  will  reach  the  hearts  of  your 
readers. 

Write  every  day.  Write  of  everything  you 
see.  Cultivate  the  letter  habit.  If  your  friends 
enjoy  your  letters  and  beg  for  more,  you  are 


238       THE  GIRL  AND  THE  PEN 


making  headway.  Put  into  those  letters  your 
impressions  of  events  and  people.  Divide  your 
hours  of  reading  between  the  works  of  standard 
English  writers,  like  Macaulay,  Carlyle,  Dick- 
ens, Scott  and  Washington  Irving,  the  books 
which  are  making  the  success  of  the  moment, 
and  the  best  current  magazines.  This  last  is 
important  because  you  must  know  the  trend  of 
literary  taste,  the  sort  of  fiction,  special  article 
or  poetry  that  editors  are  buying. 

If  you  seriously  contemplate  writing  for  a 
living,  you  must  make  a  business  of  reading 
regularly  at  your  public  library  or  subscribing 
for  the  current  magazines.  If  you  have  written 
a  tale  to  entertain  children,  buy  or  borrow  at 
the  library  every  magazine  you  can  find  for 
juvenile  readers,  and  decide  which  editor  is 
using  stories  such  as  you  have  to  offer.  If  you 
are  offering  practical  suggestions  for  the  house- 
wife, make  a  list  of  magazines  published  espe- 
cially for  women,  and  send  your  script  to  each 
one,  until  many  rejections  have  proven  that  it 
is  not  salable.  A  woman  told  me  the  other  day 
that  she  had  sent  one  story  to  twenty-nine  maga- 
zines before  she  sold  it. 

If  you  have  a  love-story,  study  the  magazines 
which  publish  fiction  before  sending  forth  the 
tale.  Do  not  send  it  to  The  Review  of  Reviews 
or  The  Scientific  American  simply  because  your 


THE  GIRL  AND  THE  PEN 


brother  happens  to  be  a  subscriber  to  one  of 
these  excellent  but  fictionless  magazines. 

The  mechanical  preparation  of  a  manuscript 
is  the  simplest  part  of  your  work.  Unless  you 
write  an  extremely  legible  and  uniform  hand, 
have  your  script  typewritten.  The  usual  charge 
is  ten  cents  per  page,  folio  size.  In  the  upper 
left-hand  corner  of  the  first  page  write  your 
name  and  address  in  full.  In  the  upper  right- 
hand  corner,  write :  ' '  Submitted  at  your  regu- 
lar rates. Every  publication  has  its  rate  for 
unknown  authors.  Only  the  established  author 
names  his  own  price.  In  the  center  of  the  sheet, 
below  these  corner  inscriptions,  write  the  title 
of  your  story. 

Tell  the  typist  who  copies  your  story  to 
double-space  it.  This  leaves  room  for  editorial 
corrections  if  your  story  is  accepted.  On  the 
last  page,  four  or  five  spaces  below  the  last  line, 
have  your  address  and  name  written  again.  If 
you  send  out  two  or  a  dozen  poems  in  the  same 
envelope,  put  your  name  and  address  on  each 
and  every  one.  Do  not  trust  that  the  typewrit- 
ing or  the  long  hand  or  the  general  style  will 
identify  them.  If  you  send  out  a  novel,  mark 
each  chapter  with  the  full  title  and  your  name 
and  address.  If  you  could  see  the  mail  unloaded 
on  the  desk  of  a  sorting  clerk  in  a  magazine  of- 
fice some  morning  you  would  understand  this 
caution. 


24Q      THE  GIEL  AND  THE  PEN 


Do  not  ask  for  an  immediate  decision,  nor 
acknowledgment  by  return  mail.  Simply  en- 
close a  self-addressed  and  stamped  envelope  for 
the  return  of  your  story  if  not  available,  and 
do  not  write  a  letter  detailing  the  story  of  your 
own  life  and  the  reasons  why  you  need  the 
money  this  story  is  worth.  The  busy  editor  has 
no  time  to  read  this  letter,  neither  is  he  con- 
ducting a  charity  bureau.  His  readers  demand 
good,  readable  stories,  not  a  poorly-written 
story,  bought  because  you  needed  the  money.  Be 
sure  to  pay  postage  on  your  script  in  full,  and 
fold  it  as  few  times  as  possible,  using  a  large 
envelope  for  this  mailing.   Never  roll  a  script. 

When  your  story  reaches  the  editorial  offices 
in  some  far-away  city,  it  will  be  sorted  with 
dozens  of  others  and  recorded  in  a  great  book, 
then  passed  on  to  the  young  man  or  woman  who 
is  known  as  the  first  reader.  If  hopeless  in  style 
or  unsuited  to  this  particular  magazine,  it  will 
be  returned  to  you  at  once,  with  a  printed  slip 
of  rejection.  If  it  seems  promising,  it  is  passed 
on  to  the  second  reader,  or  the  editor  for  whose 
department  it  seems  best  fitted.  He  reads  it, 
and,  if  favorably  inclined,  holds  it  for  an  edi- 
torial council,  provided  the  magazine  staff  is 
large,  or  he  sends  it  on  the  editor-in-chief.  With 
hundreds^  of  manuscripts  pouring  in  every 
morning,  you  must  understand  that  this  process 
will  take  time.  If  you  hear  nothing  after  your 


THE  GIEL  AND  THE  PEN  241 


manuscript  has  been  in  the  office  a  month,  write 

a  polite  note  of  inquiry,  \ 

To  the  average  woman  who  wants  to  write  | 

at  home  I  would  say:      Start  with  what  are  ■ 

known  as  ^fillers/  little  stories  which  are  sand-  | 

wiched  in  between  the  big  features  of  a  maga-  | 

zine  for  women  readers."    Perhaps  you  have  ] 

found  some  method  of  lightening  your  house-  ! 

work,  some  new  way  of  correcting  a  fault  com-  I 

mon  to  childhood ;  perhaps  you  have  been  to  a  ^ 

lunch  or  tea  and  seen  some  novel  decorations  | 

or  enjoyed  a  novel  game ;  perhaps  your  church  | 

society  has  given  a  new  entertainment.  Write  ] 

of  any  of  these  matters,  briefly  and  clearly,  so  ] 

that  some  other  woman  could  lighten  her  house-  \ 

work,  correct  her  child,  give  a  pretty  luncheon  i 

or  plan  a  profitable  church  entertainment.  Then  | 

look  over  the  magazines  for  women  and  send  j 

this    story"  to  the  one  who  seems  to  give  con-  \ 

siderable  space  to  such  matters.  If  the  matter  j| 

is  used,  you  will  be  paid  for  it.  Eeputable  edi-  ] 

tors  never  stoop  to  filching  ideas,  as  some  out-  i 

of-town  writers  think.  i 

I 

Now  for  the  would-be  newspaper  girl,  ^^the  ^ 

journalist,"  as  she  would  call  herself.  I 

The  way  to  become  a  newspaper  reporter  is  I 

to  report.    Begin  right  where  you  are,  where  ! 

you  will  have  friends  to  help  you  to  gather  \ 

news,  and  parents  to  provide  you  with  a  home  ; 
until  you  learn  whether  newspaper  work  is  all 


242       THE  GIRL  AND  THE  PEN 


that  yon  have  pictured  it,  and  nntil  the  editor 
has  learned  that  yon  have  the  trne  newspaper 
instinct.  This  will  not  take  long.  Here  is  one 
of  the  joys  of  newspaper  work.  Yon  are  not 
kept  in  suspense. 

Eemember  the  newspaper  world  wants  facts, 
not  phrases,  and  plan  your  interview  accord- 
ingly. Do  not  take  the  editor  an  essay  on 
''Architects  of  Fate.''  Tell  him  rather  that 
Mrs.  Brown  had  a  tea-party  the  other  night  and 
his  paper  ought  to  publish  the  news  about  it; 
that  the  Smithson  domicile  is  harboring  brand- 
new  twins,  and  that  Jennie  Piper  is  entertain- 
ing two  pretty  girls  from  St.  Joe.  He  will  ask 
you  the  girls'  names,  and  if  you  do  not  know, 
he  will  say  then  and  there  that  you  are  not  so 
much  of  a  newspaper  woman  as  he  thought  you 
were.  Tell  him  you  know  everybody  and  go 
everywhere  and  hear  many,  many  things  that 
somehow  never  get  into  his  weekly  paper,  or,  if 
you  are  fortunate  enough  to  live  in  a  town  which 
supports  a  daily,  that  you  think  you  could  run 
a  daily  column  or  half  column  of  society  and 
personal  news.  That  is  the  opening  wedge  for 
you  girls  with  the  pen — ^personalities,  gossip,  if 
you  will.  You  cannot  start  by  reporting  mur- 
ders or  conducting  household  departments.  You 
must  begin  by  giving  the  editor  something  his 
older,  more  blase  reporters  have  failed  to  give 


THE  GIEL  AND  THE  PEN  243 


Mm,  the  small  trifling  items  that  make  a  paper 
gossipy  and  readable. 

If  you  are  a  newspaper  woman  born,  you  will 
succeed  in  your  home  town,  I  do  not  care  what 
the  size  of  the  paper.  You  will  create  a  demand 
for  your  services.  If  you  cannot  please  the  edi- 
tor there,  if  you  cannot  induce  your  neighbors 
to  give  you  news,  what  do  you  expect  to  do  in  a 
strange  city  with  women  to  interview  who  place 
implacable  butlers  between  you  and  the  news 
you  would  learn? 

By  all  means  beg  the  editor  of  your  home 
paper  to  try  you  out;  and  then  make  yourself 
invaluable  to  him  before  you  try  your  wings  in 
the  great  city. 

You  may  have  influential  letters,  you  may 
have  diplomas  and  pretty  frocks  and  a  prettier 
smile,  but  in  a  great  city  where  you  think  there 
must  be  hundreds  of  openings  you  will  find  other 
girls  with  the  same  influential  letters,  good 
frocks,  and  pleasing  smiles  already  on  the 
ground,  a  hundred  to  every  opening.  And  when 
you  tell  the  city  editor  that  you  have  had  no 
experience  but  are  willing  to  learn,  he  will  in- 
form you  that  he  does  not  run  a  kindergarten 
for  reporters. 

Get  your  training  near  home,  if  you  have  to 
work  months  for  nothing.  I  did  this,  and  I  have 
never  regretted  it,  and  just  to  clinch  my  argu- 


244      THE  GIRL  AND  THE  PEN 


ment  I  beg  leave  to  drop  into  personalities 
once  more. 

Years  ago  in  a  mid- West  city  of  20,000  inhabi- 
tants and  one  daily  paper,  I  found  that  I  had  to 
put  my  ability  as  a  writer  to  more  regular  and 
better  financial  account.  I  called  to  see  the  edi- 
tor of  the  one  daily  paper.  He  said  his  staff 
was  complete,  but  I  insisted  on  having  some- 
thing to  do — ^just  to  show  him  that  I  could  write. 
He  said:  ^^Go  write  up  the  squirrels  in  the 
parf 

Now,  natural  history  was  so  much  Greek  to 
me,  but  I  had  to  convince  him.  I  spent  a  morn- 
ing in  the  park,  watched  the  squirrels  and  talked 
with  the  watchman.  The  next  Sunday  that 
paper  printed  a  column  about  the  habits  and 
tricks  of  the  park  squirrels — for  which  I  never 
received  a  cent. 

The  staff  was  still  full.  If  I  had  any  new  de- 
partment or  idea  to  suggest,  ^'perhaps,''  said 
the  editor  vaguely. 

The  women 's  clubs  were  just  then  coming  into 
prominence.  I  begged  space  for  a  department 
devoted  to  club  meetings — and  got  it,  with  a 
salary  of  five  dollars  a  week,  providing  the  de- 
partment made  good.  Can  you  imagine,  you 
girls  who  want  to  write  up  sensational  murders, 
the  mad  excitement  of  reporting  a  dozen  or 
more  literary  meetings  a  week,  and  trying  to 
make  the  matter  readable? 


rTHE  GIEL  AND  THE  PEN  245 


My  next  assignment  consisted  of  going  from 
pastor  to  pastor  each  Sunday  afternoon  and 
finding  church  news  for  Monday  morning's 
paper,  sorting  out  routine  announcements  and 
digging  relentlessly  for  some  bit  of  real  re- 
ligious news.  Next  I  was  sent  down  on  what 
was  known  as  Implement  Eow,  where  agricul- 
tural machinery  was  handled,  there  to  climb 
for  one  whole  long  day  in  each  week  over  plat- 
forms and  trucks  and  under  freight-cars,  often 
to  be  rewarded  with  less  than  a  column  of  per- 
sonal items  about  traveling  men  or  out-of-town 
visitors.  I  worked  so  hard  I  scarcely  had  time 
to  eat.  And  all  the  while  that  staff  remained 
full !  Men  had  the  police  run,  the  postoffice,  the 
federal  courthouse  and  the  theaters — all  of 
which  I  felt  I  could  do,  oh,  so  very  well ! 

Those  were  shoe-destroying,  soul-wearing 
days,  but  when  I  finally  came  to  New  York  and 
was  told  by  the  city  editor  on  a  large  paper  to 
go  down  to  the  Battery  and  get  a  certain  emi- 
grant story,  I  thanked  the  good  old  mid- West 
paper  and  its  patient  staff  of  editors  who  had 
trained  me  to  start  for  the  Battery  without  ask-, 
ing  the  irritable  city  editor  where  the  Battery 
was,  how  much  copy  he  wanted,  what  I  should 
ask  the  emigrant,  etc.  Those  early  days  when  I 
had  had  to  squeeze  news  from  the  mere  leavings 
of  news-sources  had  taught  me  how  to  get  a 


246      THE  GIRL  AND  THE  PEN 


story — and  that  is  what  makes  a  newspaper 
woman. 

Now  supposing  that  you  have  served  your 
apprenticeship  on  a  daily  paper  iji  a  small  in- 
land city,  how  shall  you  approach  the  city  editor 
in  a  large  city,  perhaps  in  Chicago,  Philadelphia 
or  New  York? 

First,  you  must  have  funds  on  which  to  live 
while  seeking  work  in  the  city.  It  may  be  weeks 
or  months  before  you  secure  a  salaried  posi- 
tion, and  while  you  are  doing  space  work  at 
four  or  five  dollars  per  column  you  must  have 
money  for  board,  room  and  carfare,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  the  shoe-leather,  on  which  reporting  is 
merciless.  Unless  you  have  strong  letters  of 
personal  introduction  to  city  editors  and  have 
made  a  record  for  clever,  not  mediocre,  work 
in  your  home  town,  never  start  for  a  strange 
city  and  a  new,  as  yet  unassured  position,  with- 
out at  least  enough  money  to  meet  your  current 
expenses  for  two  months. 

Second,  take  with  you  every  letter  of  intro- 
duction or  recommendation  that  you  can  mus- 
ter. Also  carry  a  number  of  newspaper  clip- 
pings, as  evidence  of  the  good  work  you  have 
done  on  the  home  paper. 

Third,  be  wise  in  selecting  the  season  of  your 
flight.  Do  not  seek  work  in  a  large  city  during 
mid-summer.  The  reportorial  force  is  general- 
ly cut  down  during  the  summer  season,  and 


THE  GIEL  AND  THE  PEN  247 


much  of  the  space  given  during  the  rest  of  the 
year  to  articles  on  the  various  phases  of  city 
life  is  filled  with  correspondence  from  summer 
resorts.  September  is  perhaps  the  best  month 
in  which  to  seek  work  in  a  city  newspaper  office, 
for  at  that  time  editors  look  kindly  on  new  blood 
for  their  staffs. 

Fourth^  do  not  rush  from  the  depot  to  the  edi- 
torial sanctum.  Study  the  city  a  bit  and  get 
your  bearings.  Incidentally,  you  may  pick  up 
some  idea  for  a  story  which  you  can  present 
to  the  editor  during  your  first  call.  The  girl 
who  comes  to  the  editor  with  an  idea  has  ten 
chances  where  the  girl  who  merely  asks  for 
work,  for  an  assignment  suggested  by  the  editor, 
has  one.  The  girl  with  ideas  or  suggestions  for 
good  stories  is  in  demand. 

A  few  words  about  the  income  of  the  young 
writer.  Put  out  of  your  mind  the  fabulous 
earnings  credited  to  novelists  and  playwrights. 
Eemember  that  you  are  serving  a  literary  ap- 
prenticeship, not  writing  the  one  ^'best  seller. 

If  you  are  writing '  ^  fillers ' '  f  or  ten-cent  maga- 
zines, you  will  be  paid  from  a  half  to  one  cent 
per  word.  If  you  are  writing  little  love  stories, 
from  1,200  to  1,500  words,  for  the  syndicates 
which  supply  fiction  to  the  daily  papers,  you  will 
receive  about  ten  dollars  per  story.  If  you  re- 
ceive twenty-five  or  thirty  dollars  for  your  first 
3,000-word  fiction  tale,  you  will  be  doing  well. 


ffHE  GIEL  AND  THE  PEN 


Later,  when  you  acquire  style  and  reputation, 
you  will  be  paid  from  seventy-five  to  two  hun- 
dred dollars  for  a  strong,  telling  story  of  action 
or  psychological  analysis.  The  income  of  the 
magazine  writer  is  as  uncertain  as  her  moods. 
A  period  of  great  mental  activity,  which  yields 
large  financial  returns,  is  generally  followed  by 
a  mental  reaction  and  a  falling  off  of  cash  re- 
turns. 

The  income  of  the  newspaper  woman  is  more 
certain.  In  large  cities  the  editor  of  the  Sim- 
day  magazine  section,  first  hope  of  the  newly- 
arrived  writer,  pays  five  dollars  a  column  for 
general  material,  more  for  special  stories  along 
exclusive  lines  with  good  illustrations.  What  is 
known  as  an  exclusive  special,  not  a  news  story, 
for  a  Sunday  paper,  the  sort  that  will  fill  a  page 
with  text  and  illustrations,  is  sure  to  bring  from 
thirty  to  fifty  dollars. 

A  woman  reporter  without  city  experience 
may  be  asked  to  start  at  fifteen  dollars  a  week. 
If  she  has  good  letters,  or  shows  marked  ability, 
or  if  her  work  in  her  home  paper  has  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  city  editor,  she  may  be  of- 
fered twenty  dollars  a  week.  From  this  point 
her  salary  is  raised,  according  to  her  usefulness 
and  efficiency,  to  thirty-five  dollars  a  week, 
"When  she  is  worth  this  to  the  city  editor,  she 
generally  asks  to  be  put  on  space  instead  of 
salary,  and  then  she  earns,  according  to  her 


THE  GIRL  AND  THE  PEN  249 


physical  strength,  working  capacity  and  keen- 
ness of  observation,  from  fifty  dollars  a  week 
up. 

In  large  cities  the  field  of  the  newspaper 
woman  is  unlimited,  for  she  soon  finds  openings 
in  magazines  for  her  keen  stories  of  city  life. 
But  her  daily  life  is  not  easy.  It  is  strenuous, 
nerve-straining  and  harsh.  Her  hours  are  ir- 
regular, her  work  will  not  wait  for  a  more  pro- 
pitious day  or  better  weather,  and  the  excuse 
has  not  yet  been  invented  which  will  soften  the 
heart  or  lighten  the  criticism  of  the  editor  when 
she  scores  failure. 


CHAPTEE  XIX 


THE  GIBL  THE  BUSINESS  WOELD  WANTS 

No  MATTER  what  occupation  a  girl  may  choose 
as  a  means  of  self-support,  certain  personal 
qnalifications  and  business-like  attributes  are 
essential  to  her  success.  Mere  training  for  a 
trade  or  profession,  or  mere  education  along 
technical  or  theoretical  lines,  will  count  for  little 
if  the  girl  does  not  possess  the  ability  to  employ 
her  knowledge  ^n  the  practical,  business-like 
way. 

The  industrial,  commercial  or  professional 
world  needs  the  well-trained  girl ;  yes,  but  more 
it  needs  the  girl  who  has  good  common  sense, 
the  girl  who  is  sincere,  loyal  and  capable  of  con- 
centrating on  the  work  at  hand. 

And  the  greatest  of  these  gifts  is  sincerity 
/which  is  bu^ilt  upon  common  sense  and  which 
ileads  to  loyalty  and  concentration. 

When  you  first  enter  the  business  world  you 
will  meet  many  fellow-workers  who  pretend  to 
do  big  things,  to  work  hard  and  to  have  their 
employers'  interest  at  heart,  when,  in  reality, 

350 


THE  BUSINESS  WORLD  251 


they  are  simply  making  a  superficial  showing, 
and  they  are  not  working,  not  putting  heart  and 
soul  into  their  work. 

Be  not  deceived  by  their  methods.  Be  sincere. 
Do  your  work  so  that  each  night  as  you  pass 
the|  timekeeper  or  the  cage  in  which  sits  the 
cashier,  you  can  say  in  your  heart :  ' '  To-day  I 
have  earned  all  that  Mr.  Blank  pays  me — and 
more.'' 

These  words  are  a  satisfying  chant,  but  if 
you  simply  make  a  pretense  at  working,  there 
will  be  no  song  on  your  lips ;  rather  a  shaky  feel- 
ing in  your  knees  and  a  sinking  in  your  heart 
not  pleasant  to  feel.  Whenever  a  girl  tells  me 
that  she  has  an  ^^easy"  position,  I  mark  her  for 
a  girl  doomed  for  early  dismissal.  It  is  never 
really  easy  to  earn  your  salary  and  incidentally 
work  toward  promotion. 

Perhaps  you  do  not  understand  just  what  I 
mean  by  sincerity  in  work,  so  let  me  give  you  a 
few  concrete  examples. 

When  you  were  in  school  you  had  to  make  a 
certain  average  in  order  to  secure  promotion. 
If  you  were  not  sincere  in  your  work,  when 
taking  an  examination  you  carefully  selected 
the  questions  you  could  answer,  and,  once  sure 
of  making  the  average,  you  did  not  worry  about 
the  ones  you  had  to  leave  unanswered. 

Now  that  you  are  going  into  business,  you 
think  that  here  you  can  employ  the  same  meth- 


252         THE  BUSINESS  WORLD 


ods.  You  will  start  at  five  or  six  dollars  a  week 
doing  simple,  humble  tasks;  and  you  will  do 
them  just  well  enough  so  that  your  employer  or 
the  head  of  your  department  will  not  find  fault 
with  you.  You  will  do  what  you  are  paid  for — 
and  not  one  jot  more.  You  will  not  arrive  at 
the  store  one  minute  ahead  of  time,  and  your  eye 
will  be  on  the  clock-dial  when  the  afternoon 
shadows  begin  to  fall. 

Not  how  much  you  can  do  in  a  day.  but  how 
little  and  still  hold  your  position!  Is  this  to 
be  your  gospel?  You  are  not  lazy,  but  soon 
you  will  belong  to  the  great  army  of  workers 
who  are  afraid  of  being  imposed  upon  by  their 
employers.  You  are  getting  ready  to  join  the 
legions  of  underpaid  girls  and  women. 

Make  no  mistake  about  your  abilities  when 
first  you  are  paid  wages.  Ninety-nine  chances 
out  of  a  hundred  you  will  not  begin  to  earn 
what  your  employer  pays  you,  I  do  not  care 
how  small  the  salary.  Your  blunders  will  cost 
him  money  or  customers.  Your  inexperience 
and  the  necessity  for  showing  you  how  to  do 
things  in  the  firm^s  way  will  cost  the  time  and 
the  energy  of  some  well-paid  employee  placed 
over  you  in  authority.  Your  employer  will  not 
receive  any  returns  for  what  he  pays  you  for 
many,  many  weeks. 

Late  one  afternoon  I  receive  a  letter  from  an 
out-of-town  friend. 


THE  BUSINESS  WORLD  253 


^^Send  me  by  return  mail,  please,  five  yards 
of  percaline  to  line  this  silk.'' 

^'This  silk"  was  an  exqusite  shade  of  pale 
green. 

I  rushed  to  the  nearest  store — the  green  silk 
was  for  a  bridesmaid's  frock,  and  the  wedding 
day  at  hand — ^and  I  offered  the  bit  of  shimmery 
silk  to  a  clerk. 

'^Five  yards  of  percaline  to  match  that, 
please." 

*^We  ain't  got  any  percaline  like  that,"  she 
said,  listlessly  dropping  my  sample.  My  glance 
traveled  up  and  down  the  shelving,  and  lighted 
on  a  piece  of  palest  green  lining. 

^^What  is  that  third  bolt  from  the  top?" 

*^That  ain't  percaline — ^it's  shimmer  satin. '^ 

^^Well,  I'd  like  to  see  it." 

It  costs  two  cents  more  a  yard  than  perca- 
line," replied  the  clerk,  not  offering  to  take 
down  the  bolt,  ^^and  it  ain't  so  heavy. '^ 

^^I  want  to  see  it,"  I  replied  firmly,  and  I  got 
it,  not  because  of  the  clerk,  but  in  spite  of  her. 

Now,  if  she  had  been  sincere  in  her  work,  if 
she  had  wanted  to  pay  her  employer  for  training 
her  to  earn  her  own  living,  she  would  have  said 
to  me: 

^^We  have  no  percaline  that  shade,  but  I  can 
give  you  a  much  better  and  softer  lining  at  only 
a  few  cents  more  a  yard." 

But  she  was  just  hoping  that  I  would  not  buy. 


254         THE  BUSINESS  WOELD 


She  wanted  to  make  up  her  book  and  be 
ready  to  reach  for  her  gloves  and  purse  the  in- 
stant the  first  bell  rang. 
Another  instance: 

^^I  can't  understand  why  Jennie  does  not  get 
alongj'^  murmured  the  mother  of  three  girls, 
all  wage-earners.  '^She  was  the  brightest  of 
my  girls  in  school,  always  just  slid  from  class 
to  class  without  any  apparent  effort,  while  both 
Elizabeth  and  Helen  had  to  work  like  Trojans, 
but  now  both  of  the  tortoises  are  outstripping 
the  hare.  Jennie  has  been  at  Leyland's  two 
years,  and  has  had  her  salary  raised  just  once, 
and  that  only  a  dollar  a  week.'' 

This  mother  did  not  realize  that  the  ques- 
tion which  she  propounded  in  one  breath  she 
answered  with  the  next. 

^^She  always  slid  from  class  to  class  without 
apparent  effort." 

That  is  the  answer ! 

Jennie  tried  to  introduce  into  the  business 
world  the  same  methods  she  had  pursued  at 
school.  She  was  one  of  the  clever  girls  who  can 
skim  through  a  lesson  just  before  recitation 
hour,  snatch  at  important  points,  and  promptly 
forget  all  about  them  within  an  hour  after 
school.  She  had  a  quick  memory,  but  not  a  de- 
pendable, reliable  one. 

She  never  did  anything  thoroughly.  What 
she  did  study  failed  to  remain  with  her  as  per- 


THE  BUSINESS  WORLD  255 


manent  knowledge.  She  was  distinctly  super- 
ficial, and  yet  she  always  made  a  good  appear- 
ance in  her  class.  Teachers  shook  their  heads 
and  said  it  was  a  pity  to  see  good  gray  matter 
wasted,  but  fellow-pupils  envied  her  the  faculty 
for  securing  results  without  real  work. 

For  a  time  these  tactics  will  make  a  good  im- 
pression in  business,  but  the  time  will  be  short. 
The  girl  who  remembers  orders  for  two  or  three 
days,  but  has  to  be  reminded  of  them  thereafter 
at  regular  intervals  never  scores  a  permanent 
success.  The  girl  who  writes  instructions  on  a 
dependable  memory,  with  an  indelible  pencil, 
lasts. 

The  girl  who  listens  to  about  half  the  sug- 
gestions offered  by  her  chief  and  then  interrupts 
him:  ^^Oh,  yes,  I  understand  perfectly.  You 
want  it  done  so-and-so,''  makes  a  very  good 
first  impression.    The  chief  says  to  himself: 

There's  the  sort  of  girl  I  like  to  have  around. 
You  don't  have  to  furnish  a  diagram  with  your 
explanations." 

But  by  and  by  he  finds  that  this  girl  has  only 
half  grasped  his  instructions,  while  another  girl 
who  asked  for  fuller  explanations  was  reinforc- 
ing her  memory  and  had  fully  grasped  the 
meaning. 

The  girl  who  ^^just  slides  through"  never 
knows  her  stock  if  she  is  clerking ;  never  has  her 
employer's  business  terms  at  her  finger-tips  if 


256         THE  BUSINESS  WOELD 


she  is  a  stenographer ;  never  takes  the  pains  to 
find  out  why  she  is  asked  to  do  certain  things 
in  a  certain  way  if  she  is  employed  in  a  factory. 

She  gives  merely  a  superficial  effect  of  being 
tremendously  interested  in  her  work.  In  reality 
she  is  thinking  of  something  else.  In  the  end  it  is 
the  something  else,  not  the  work,  that  wins  out. 

Loyalty  is  a  splendid  business  asset.  It  wins 
the  respect  and  appreciation  of  your  employer, 
while  disloyalty  causes  dismissal  and  loss  of 
self-respect. 

It  is  not  always  easy  to  be  loyal  to  your  em- 
ployer, especially  if  you  are  an  inexperienced 
girl  or  woman. 

Somehow,  in  the  average  man  there  exists  an 
inborn  sense  of  business  honor.  He  rather 
prides  himself  on  being  silent  about  the  affairs 
of  the  man  or  the  firm  for  whom  he  works.  He 
can  accept  reprimands  without  feeling  a  mad 
desire  to  retaliate  by  knocking'^  his  employ- 
ers the  first  time  their  backs  are  turned. 

On  the  other  hand,  women  must  acquire  this 
sense  of  honor.  Some  do.  Others  talk  too  much, 
especally  when  smarting  under  a  rebuke  more 
or  less  deserved.  Without  meaning  to  be  dis- 
loyal to  employers,  they  steer  close  to  the  shoals 
of  petty,  dishonorable  gossip,  not  realizing'  that 
the  employee  who  is  worth  good  money  to  her 
firm  is  the  one  who  feels  that  the  firm's  interests 
are  hers,  and  who,  therefore,  is  close-mouthed. 


THE  BUSINESS  WORLD  257 


Two  girls,  in  ankle-length  skirts,  rode  in  an 
elevator  with  me  not  long  ago,  talking  rather 
loudly,  as  inexperienced  girls  will.  Said  the 
blonde : 

' '  How 'd  you  like  your  new  place  1 ' ' 

^^Fine!  Nothing  to  do  hardly,"  replied  the 
brunette.  ^^I'm  going  to  bring  down  a  book 
from  the  library  to-morrow.  Say,  you'd  just 
die  if  you'd  see  him  trying  to  find  something  for 
me  to  do.  I  don't  see  why  he  wants  a  stenogra- 
pher, anyhow.  Honest,  it  nearly  gives  me  heart- 
failure  when  he  dictates  a  letter.  Wouldn't  you 
hate  to  be  married  to  a  young  lawyer?'' 

Then  they  both  giggled,  and  several  men  in 
the  car  smiled. 

That  girl  did  not  realize  that  in  thus  chatter- 
ing of  her  employer's  affairs  in  a  public  place 
she  was  disloyal  to  the  man  who  paid  her  salary, 
but  she  was,  just  the  same — disloyal,  silly  and 
unwomanly.  Perhaps  that  struggling  young 
lawyer  kept  a  stenographer  as  part  of  the  little 
business  drama  of  keeping  up  appearances. 
Perhaps  he  hoped  to  secure  business  from  the 
very  men  in  the  building  who  were  riding  in  the 
car  with  his  foolish  stenographer. 

If  you  feel  that  you  must  laugh  at  your  chief, 
wait  until  you  are  alone  with  your  mirror  or 
safely  buried  in  the  bosom  of  your  family.  I 
admit  that  some  employers  are  more  or  less  of 


258         THE  BUSINESS  WORLD 


a  joke,  but  don't  jest  about  them  in  public  or 
where  eavesdroppers  may  hear  your  careless 
words  and  carry  them  further,  to  do  harm  to 
your  employer  and  eventually  to  yourself.  Your 
employer  is  straining  every  nerve  to  make  his 
business  succeed.  Perhaps  he  is  not  working 
in  just  the  right  way,  but  it  is  not  your  place 
to  shout  this  fact  from  the  house-tops.  Perhaps 
in  time  he  may  see  the  error  of  his  methods  and 
work  out  his  business  salvation  on  different 
lines.  In  the  meantime  if  the  you  mean  to  ac- 
cept a  salary  at  his  hands,  be  loyal  to  his  inter- 
ests, and  do  not  criticize  him  to  his  friends  or 
his  rivals. 

When  you  feel  inclined  to  be  disloyal,  stop 
and  figure  on  what  you  owe  your  employer. ' 

Start  your  business  career  by  honestly  appre- 
ciating the  privilege  of  being  paid  a  salary  dur- 
ing your  training.  The  modem  boy  or  girl 
knows  little  enough  about  being  trained  for 
work.  In  the  old  days  of  apprentices  for  trades, 
boys  and  girls  worked  from  two  to  seven  years 
for  nothing  or  for  board  and  lodging,  in  order 
to  be  prepared  properly  for  wage-earning.  To- 
day many  girls  with  absolutely  no  equipment 
seem  to  think  that  employers  ought  to  be  glad 
to  secure  their  inexperienced  services. 

Just  get  that  idea  out  of  your  head.  Bear  in 
mind  that  the  debt  is  all  on  your  side.  Be  sin- 
cerely grateful  to  the  man  who  gives  you  a 


THE  BUSINESS  WORLD  259 


chance  to  prove  your  worth.  You  have  then 
taken  the  first  step  on  the  pathway  of  success. 
In  fact,  your  entire  business  future  depends 
upon  your  understanding  perfectly  the  relation 
between  employer  and  employee. 

Why  are  you  going  to  work? 

Because  you  need  money!  Otherwise  do  not 
go  to  work,  because  you  will  be  a  drone  and  a 
discredit  to  your  sex  in  the  wage-earning  field. 
Moreover,  you  will  be  occupying  a  place  that 
belongs  to  some  girl  who  must  work. 

Why  is  your  employer  paying  you  wqges  ? 

Because  he  has  work  to  be  done.  If  you  can- 
not do  that  work,  he  has  a  perfect  right  to  find 
some  one  who  can  do  it.  Remember,  he  is  not 
conducting  a  charity  bureau. 

Many  a  girl  thinks  that  the  world,  as  personi- 
fied in  her  prospective  employer,  owes  her  a 
living.  That  is  all  wrong.  The  world  owes  you 
just»what  you  are  capable  of  earning.  And 
when  you  have  passed  through  the  various 
stages  of  inexperience  and  incompetency  to  suc- 
cessful effort  and  a  position  of  authority,  you 
will  look  at  the  girls  who  come  to  you  in  search 
of  work  precisely  as  some  one  is  looking  at  you 
to-day. 

Be  business-like  even  in  applying  for  work. 

Your  possible  employer  wants  to  know  if  you 
can  read,  write,  cipher,  keep  his  stock  in  order 
and  yourself  presentable.  If  you  can  do  these 


260         THE  BUSINESS  WORLD 


things,  and  have  an  ordinary  amount  of  intelli- 
gence, he  knows  that  in  time  you  will  earn  your 
salary. 

He  does  not  want  to  know  that  you  need  a 
new  hat,  or  that  your  invalid  brother  needs  a 
roUing-chair,  or  that  your  mother  is  ill  and 
ought  to  hire  a  maid  with  your  salary,  or  that 
your  father  has  met  with  reverses.  If  any  of 
these  afflictions  have  befallen  your  family,  you 
are  welcome  to  spend  your  salary  alleviating 
them ;  but  the  one  important  factor  in  this  man's 
calculations  is:  ^^Will  she  do  the  work  and  do 
itwelir' 

Tell  him  what  you  can  do  or  what  you  mean 
to  do  when  you  are  trained  for  the  work,  and 
never  mind  how  you  expect  to  spend  your 
salary.  Talk  of  your  talents,  not  of  your  trou- 
bles. Stand  on  your  merit  as  a  worker,  and  not 
on  your  needs.  Then  your  employer  will  say : 
^^Here  is  a  business-like,  seli-reliant  girl,  and 
I  need  her..'' 

Girls,  earning  your  living  is  work — and  if  you 
are  not  very  careful  it  degenerates  into  the  most 
monotonous,  deadening,  slavish  form  of  work. 
Your  one  salvation  will  be  your  sincerity,  your 
enthusiasm.  Start  out  by  believing  in  your  em- 
ployer, in  yourself,  and  in  your  ability  to  rise. 
If  you  do  this  you  will  be  the  sort  of  girl  the 
business  world  needs,  the  sort  of  girl  who  has 


THE  BUSINESS  WORLD  261 


her  salary  raised,  the  sort  of  girl  who  makes 
good.'^ 

Here  are  two  quotations  which  will  prove  im- 
mensely helpful  to  you.  The  first  is  from  a 
poem  by  Dr.  Henry  Van  Dyke : 

^^This  is  my  work,  my  blessing,  not  my  doom; 
Of  all  who  live,  I  am  the  one  by  whom 
This  work  can  best  be  done,  in  my  own  way.'^ 

The  second  is  from  Elbert  Hubbard's  little 
magazine,  The  Philistine, 

^^Get  your  happiness  out  of  your  work,  or 
you'll  never  know  what  happiness  is." 

When  you  have  mastered  their  philosophy, 
and  can  go  to  your  work  each  morning  with  a 
song  in  your  heart,  you  will  be  the  sort  of  girl 
the  business  world  needs — and  pays  well. 


CHAPTER  XX 


LIVING  EXPENSES  OF  THE  SELF-SUPPORTING  GIRL  IN 
BIG  CITIES 

No  GIRL  who  has  read  the  preceding  chapters 
with  any  degree  of  earnestness  can  fail  to  real- 
ize that  between  the  day  of  leaving  school  and 
the  day  of  actual  economic  independence  there 
is  bonnd  to  be  a  period  of  financial  stringency. 
This  may  be  represented  by  an  underpaid  or 
even  unpaid  apprenticeship,  or  by  a  dreary 
search  for  work  on  the  part  of  the  untrained 
girl  who  must  secure  some  sort  of  livelihood  and 
her  training  through  experience  at  one  and  the 
same  time.  Even  the  girl  from  out-of-town  who 
has  a  trade  or  who  has  had  office  or  store  ex- 
perience must  prove  her  worth  to  the  city  em- 
ployer, and  this  represents  a  period  of  living  on 
very  small  wages. 

A  social  worker  who  has  given  much  earnest 
thought  and  investigation  to  the  problem  states 
that  the  average  wage  paid  to  the  out-of-town 
girl  during  her  first  three  months  in  a  large  city 
like  New  York,  Chicago  or  Denver  is  five  dol- 

262 


LIVING  EXPENSES  263 


lars  per  week.  Her  list  includes  stenographers, 
bookkeepers,  cashiers,  salesgirls,  factory  work- 
ers, telephone  operators,  and  even  fairly  good 
helpers  in  dressmaking  shops.  The  exceptions 
are  girls  who  have  influence  or  an  introduction 
through  an  employee  standing  high  with  the 
firm. 

What  experience  have  you  had  in  this  city?'^ 
is  the  question  hurled  at  the  newcomer,  until 
she  begins  to  dread  it,  knowing  that  the  pref- 
erence will  be  given  to  applicants  having  local 
references. 

It  is  not  to  be  denied  that  often  the  girl  from 
a  smaller  city  or  even  a  village  develops  into 
the  better  clerk  or  office  worker  for  a  Chicago 
or  New  York  employer  than  does  the  city-born 
girl;  but  until  she  has  proven  her  worth,  the 
newcomer  must  work  at  the  salary  of  a  local 
apprentice,  no  matter  what  her  experience  in 
her  home  town. 

The  inexperienced  city  girl  must  also  start  at 
the  smallest  wages  which  the  superintendent  of 
the  establishment  dares  to  offer,  simply  because, 
as  I  have  explained  in  other  chapters,  the  em- 
ployer feels  that  her  mistakes  will  be  many  and 
costly,  and  she  will  not  earn  the  sum  he  pays 
her,  no  matter  how  small  that  may  be. 

Both  the  city  and  the  country  girl  are  forced 
to  accept  three,  four  or  five  dollars  per  week^ 
quieting  their  fears  by  repeating  the  superin- 


264 


LIVING  EXPENSES 


tendent's  consoling  words:  ^'But  we  will  in- 
crease your  salary  as  fast  as  you  prove  your 
worth. ' ' 

But  even  when  a  girl  tries  her  level  best  to 
prove  her  worth,  and  when  she  gives  her  undi- 
vided attention  and  efforts  to  the  firm's  busi- 
ness, it  takes  weeks  and  months  to  master  de- 
tails and  to  avoid  mistakes.  And  all  that  time 
she  must  live  somehow  on  what  the  firm  pays 
her.  If  out-of-town  mothers  realized  just  what 
this  period  of  probation  represented  in  priva- 
tion, loneliness,  perhaps  actual  physical  dis- 
comfort, suffering  and  hunger,  they  would  do  all 
in  their  power  to  keep  ambitious  but  untrained 
daughters  at  home.  But,  unfortunately,  moth- 
ers who  have  never  worked  for  their  living  have 
false  ideas  of  business  life.  They  see  only  the 
well-clad,  smiling  girls  behind  counters  or  in 
offices,  and  they  do  not  stop  to  inquire  what 
price  these  girls  paid  for  their  business  train- 
ing, their  present  economic  independence. 

And  so,  every  week  of  the  year,  and  every  day 
of  the  week,  even  including  Sunday,  the  railway 
trains  bring  to  every  large  city  hundreds  of 
girls  utterly  unprepared  to  offer  skilled  labor  in 
return  for  living  wages,  girls  who  must  some- 
how live  while  being  trained  to  become  real 
wage-earners. 

Only  women  engaged  in  social  work,  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Travelers'  Aid  Society  and 


LIVING  EXPENSES  265 


matrons  of  homes  or  temporary  shelters  for 
working-girls,  have  any  conception  of  the  num- 
ber of  unskilled,  untrained  girls  who  plunge  into 
cities  without  sufficient  funds  to  tide  them  over 
a  fortnight.  These  girls  honestly  believe  that 
within  a  week  they  will  be  working  somewhere, 
somehow,  on  a  salary  which  will  not  only  permit 
them  to  live  in  city  comfort,  but  to  send  some- 
thing home  to  ' '  the  folks. ' '  The  pathos  of  their 
ignorance  is  not  a  matter  for  consideration  here. 
Their  relief,  their  social  salvation,  is  a  matter 
of  moment. 

No  mother  should  permit  her  daughter  to  go 
to  a  strange  city  unless  she  can  provide  the  girl 
with  funds  to  pay  board  and  room  for  a  month, 
which  will  amount  to  not  less  than  twenty  dol- 
lars, and  the  price  of  her  return  ticket  in  case 
she  fails  to  find  work  in  that  time.  The  mother 
who  recklessly  allows  her  unskilled  daughter  to 
enter  a  strange  city  armed  only  with  a  week's 
board  and  high  hopes,  is  guilty  of  criminal  neg- 
lect as  the  guardian  of  her  child's  future. 

I  wish  I  could  drive  this  lesson  into  the  heart 
of  every  mother  who  feels  that  her  daughter 
must  go  to  some  large  city  in  order  to  succeed. 
If  the  two  are  convinced  that  the  home  town  of- 
fers no  future  for  the  daughter,  then  let  them 
prove  the  sincerity  of  their  conviction  by  earn- 
ing enough  money  at  home,  even  if  it  means 
taking  in  washing  and  ironing,  to  insure  all  or 


266  LIVING  EXPENSES 


part  of  the  daughter's  living  expenses  for  at 
least  three  months  after  she  goes  to  the  city. 

Earnest  women  in  every  large  city  are  trying 
to  cope  with  the  social  problem  of  the  under- 
paid girl  in  store  and  factory.  They  are  build- 
ing homes  and  investigating  boarding  and 
rooming-houses,  but  where  there  are  dozens  of 
self-supporting  hotels  for  men  who  must  live  for 
a  song,  in  only  a  few  cities  have  hotels  for  work- 
ing-women been  placed  on  a  business  basis.  As 
yet  they  are  semi-charitable  institutions,  so 
managed  that  they  appeal  neither  to  the  girls 
who  must  seek  them  as  a  refuge  nor  to  the 
citizens  who  are  asked  to  support  them.  And 
when  I  add  that  $3.50  per  week  is  the  minimum 
charge  for  board  and  lodging  at  these  homes,'' 
excepting  a  few  in  New  York  City  which  are 
conducted  by  the  Eoman  Catholic  and  Episcopal 
sisterhoods,  the  country  girl  and  her  mother 
should  have  a  very  fair  idea  of  how  hard  it  will 
be  to  make  the  five-dollar-a-week  salary  meet 
current  expenses.  , 

Fortunate  is  the  out-of-town  girl  who  has 
relatives  located  in  the  city  where  she  goes  to 
seek  work.  She  should  communicate  with  them, 
and,  if  possible,  make  some  business-like  ar- 
rangement for  boarding  in  their  home.  This  is 
an  important  step  for  two  reasons.  First,  when 
the  out-of-town  applicant  announces  to  a  super- 
intendent of  employees  that  she  is  living  with 


LIVING  EXPENSES  267 


relatives,  this  is  a  social  guarantee  whicli  al- 
ways appeals  to  the  city  employer.  Second,  in 
the  home  of  relatives  the  price  paid  for  board 
includes  privileges,  such  as  doing  one's  own 
laundry  work,  pressing  tailored  suits,  using  a 
sewing  machine,  etc.,  which  are  often  imprac- 
ticable in  a  boarding-house  or  ^^home,''  or  for 
which  an  extra  charge  is  made. 

Many  girls  deliberately  avoid  relatives  on  the 
plea  that  they  prefer  ^^to  stand  on  their  own 
feet/'  This  independence  is  charming  in 
theory,  especially  when  enunciated  in  a  quiet 
village,  several  hundred  miles  from  the  turmoil 
and  loneliness  of  city  life.  But  when  the  first 
wave  of  homesickness  sweeps  over  the  country 
girl  in  a  dreary  hall  bedroom,  she  will  wish 
that  she  had  sought  the  shelter  which  the  home 
of  the  despised  relatives  might  have  offered. 
We  all  know  that  relatives,  on  occasion,  may  be 
unnecessarily  frank  in  their  expression  of  ad- 
vice and  opinion,  but  to  the  girl  who  finds  her- 
self alone  in  the  great  city  any  sort  of  blood- 
ties  affords  comforting  protection. 

The  girl  who  has  no  relatives  or  friends  in  the 
city  should  secure  all  the  information  obtain- 
able about  boarding-places,  homes,''  etc.,  be- 
fore leaving  her  home  town.  Such  information 
can  generally  be  secured  through  the  Young 
Women's  Christian  Association.  In  Chicago, 
Philadelphia,  Washington  and  Boston  this  as- 


268  LIVING  EXPENSES 


sociation  maintains  homes'^  or  boarding- 
houses,  where  room  and  board  can  be  secured  at 
a  very  low  figure.  Good  employment  bureaus 
also  will  be  found  in  connection  with  these 
boarding-houses.  The  Harlem  Branch  of  the 
same  association  in  New  York  City,  and  the 
Brooklyn  rooms  carry  reliable  lists  of  homes" 
and  boarding-houses.  The  bureau  of  informa- 
tion at  the  downtown  branch  of  the  Y.  W.  C.  A. 
in  New  York  City,  generally  known  as  the  Mar- 
garet Louise  Home,  recommends  boarding  and 
rooming-houses  that  are  beyond  the  means  of 
the  average  girl  seeking  work  in  New  York. 
This  branch  of  the  association,  despite  the  mis- 
leading title^  ^^The  Margaret  Louise  Home,'' 
appeals  to  the  successful  business  woman  or 
tourist,  rather  than  to  the  girl  seeking  work. 
No  out-of-town  girl  should  make  the  common 
mistake  of  going  unannounced  from  a  New 
York  depot  to  the  Margaret  Louise  Home.  She 
must  write  in  advance  for  a  room.  This  is  pure- 
ly a  hotel  for  women,  with  reasonable  charges, 
and  it  is  always  crowded.  It  is  in  no  sense  a 
shelter  or  ^^home''  for  the  girl  in  search  of 
work, 

Pittsburg  is  building  new  headquarters  for 
the  Y.  W.  C.  A. ;  Omaha,  Neb.,  has  just  opened  a 
fine  new  building;  Minneapolis  and  Los  Angeles 
have  inviting  headquarters ;  but  not  all  of  these 
have  rooming-houses  or  dormitories  attached. 


LIVING  EXPENSES  269 


It  is  always  much  safer  for  the  out-of-town  girl 
to  write  well  in  advance  for  information,  ad- 
dressing her  letter  ^'Secretary,  Young  Women's 
Christian  Association/'  and  the  name  of  the 
city  where  she  plans  to  seek  work.  She  should 
ask  whether  this  particular  branch  of  the  as- 
sociation maintains  dormitories  and  a  restau- 
rant, what  rates  are  charged,  or,  if  the  rooms 
are  all  occupied,  what  rooming-houses  and 
boarding-places  the  association  recommends ; 
also  whether  a  representative  of  the  Travelers' 
Aid  Society  will  be  found  at  the  depot  where 
she  expects  to  arrive.  With  this  request  for 
information  she  should  enclose  a  stamped  and 
self-addressed  envelope.  The  very  manner  in 
which  she  approaches  this,  her  first  city  prob- 
lem, will  betray  her  thoroughness  and  her  busi- 
ness instinct,  incidentally  making  a  good  im- 
pression on  the  secretary  who  receives  her 
letter. 

The  girl  who  for  any  reason  is  obliged  to 
leave  home  suddenly  and  who  arrives  in  a 
strange  city  unarmed  with  advance  information, 
should  ask  for  the  representative  of  the  Trav- 
elers' Aid  Association  or  the  matron  in  the  de- 
pot. She  should  not  consult  the  advertising 
columns  of  the  daily  papers  for  a  boarding- 
house,  as  she  is  ignorant  of  neighborhoods  and 
their  dangers.   Any  woman  connected  with  the 


270  LIVING  EXPENSES 


depot  staff  wil  be  able  to  guide  the  stranger  to 
a  ^  ^  borne or  temporary  shelter. 

The  ^'home"  or  temporary  shelter  for  work- 
ing-girls has  its  disadvantages,  I  admit.  Very 
often  the  girls  living  in  such  places  complain 
that  they  feel  like  inmates  of  an  institution. 
This  is  due  to  the  attitude  of  the  matron  or 
superintendent,  who  is  not  always  a  tactful  per- 
son. But  the  stranger  in  a  big  city  will  make 
no  mistake  in  seeking  such  a  refuge.  Not  only 
will  the  low  board  help  her  to  stretch  her  small 
savings  to  the  limit,  but  she  will  meet  at  these 

homes"  practical  working-girls  whose  knowl- 
edge of  city  life  and  methods  of  securing  posi- 
tions will  be  worth  more  to  her  than  columns 
of  advertising  for  work.  The  proprietor  of  a 
second  or  third-grade  boarding-house  knows 
little  or  nothing  of  industrial  conditions  or  of 
openings  in  the  mercantile  field.  Other  board- 
ers at  such  establishments  are  either  undesira- 
ble acquaintances  without  influence,  or  they  are 
absorbed  in  their  own  affairs.  But  the  bond 
of  fellowship  between  self-supporting  girls  at 

homes"  is  strong  and  vital. 
For  instance,  I  know  of  a  college  girl  from 
Maine  who  for  weeks  tried  unavailingly  to  se- 
cure a  position  in  a  publishing  house.  As  her 
means  dwindled  and  her  pride  rebelled  against 
returning  to  her  native  town,  she  sought  refuge 
in  a  ^^home/'  where  she  met  a  little  woman  who 


LIVING  EXPENSES 


addressed  envelopes  in  a  publishing  office  at  six 
dollars  per  week.  In  exactly  three  days  there 
was  an  opening  in  this  same  office  for  a  filing 
clerk  at  five  dollars  per  week,  and  on  the  advice 
of  her  new-fonnd  friend  the  college  girl  took  it. 
To-day  she  is  manuscript  reader  with  the  same 
firm  and  lives  in  her  own  little  flat.  Her  em- 
ployer, talking  for  the  first  time  with  this  girl 
of  evident  refinement  and  good  social  connec- 
tions, would  never  have  thought  to  offer  her  the 
humble  position  of  filing  clerk,  which  she  se- 
cured only  thraugh  her  acquaintance  with  a 
fellow-worker. 

Board  at  these  homes  can  be  secured  as 
low  as  three  dollars  per  week,  if  the  newcomer 
is  willing  to  share  a  dormitory  with  from  three 
to  five  other  girls.  For  four  dollars  and  fifty 
cents  or  five  dollars  she  can  secure  a  small  hall- 
room  that  will  be  hers  exclusively.  Girls  in 
dormitories  have  no  separate  dressing-rooms, 
and  usually  two  girls  must  share  a  locker  or 
closet  for  clothes.  Baths  are  provided,  and  the 
halls  and  sitting-rooms  are  heated  in  winter. 
The  dormitories  are  not  heated.  Boarders  are 
governed  by  somewhat  strict  rules  as  to  hours 
of  rising  and  retiring,  meals,  etc.,  and  no  one 
may  stay  out  later  than  10:30  p.m.,  save  by 
special  permission. 

The  Trowmart  Inn,  Abingdon  Square,  New 
York  City,  Franklin  Square  House,  Boston, 


272  LIVING  EXPENSES 


Mass.,  and  the  Eleanor  Homes  in  Chicago,  are 
managed  on  a  more  liberal  scale.  They  are 
really  self-supporting  hotels  for  women  at  mod- 
erate prices,  where  the  girls  may  and  do  feel 
entirely  independent.  These  hotels  appeal  par- 
ticularly to  the  girl  who  earns  between  six  and 
ten  dollars  per  week.  Single  rooms,  with  break- 
fast and  dinner  on  week-days,  and  three  meals 
on  Sunday,  cost  from  four  dollars  and  fifty 
cents  a  week  up.  Girls  who  share  rooms  with 
one  or  more  girls  secure  proportionately  lower 
rates.  The  price  of  board  and  room  carries 
with  it  many  privileges,  such  as  use  of  a  sewing- 
room  supplied  with  machines,  cutting  tables, 
etc.,  a  well-equipped  laundry,  a  gymnasium,  par- 
lors, library,  etc.  Both  the  sewing  and  laundry 
privileges  are  invaluable,  for  the  out-of-town 
girl  is  fairly  staggered  by  the  prices  charged 
in  cities  for  both  sewing  and  washing. 

The  girl  who  seeks  cheap  board  in  a  private 
household,  rather  than  a  ^^home,''  generally 
finds  herself  in  wretched  quarters,  unventilated 
rooms,  mere  closets,  with  no  toilet  facilities,  and 
a  diet  of  bread,  tea,  coffee  and  cheap  meats.  At 
three  dollars  a  week  she  must  board  in  a  tene- 
ment district,  or  share  a  furnished  room  with 
several  other  girls  at  a  cost  varying  from 
seventy-five  cents  to  a  dollar  a  week,  and  make 
the  remaining  two  dollars  cover  a  week's  food. 

In  the  larger  cities  like  New  York  or  Chicago, 


LIVING  EXPENSES  273 


such  landladies  as  offer  board  and  room  for 
i5ve  dollars  a  week  expect  two  girls  to  share  one 
room,  and  one  bath  is  considered  sufficient  for 
an  entire  household  of  ten,  fifteen  or  twenty. 
The  food  is  plentiful,  but  illy  prepared.  Meats 
of  the  cheaper  sorts  form  the  important  dishes, 
and  bakery  stuff  of  all  sorts  is  served.  The  bed- 
rooms are  not  tidy,  and  the  supply  of  gas  is  cut 
to  a  point  so  low  that  a  girl  must  supply  herself 
with  a  lamp  for  reading  purposes.  At  some  of 
the  better  class  boarding-houses,  neat  hall 
bedrooms  can  be  secured  with  board  for  one  dol- 
lar a  day,  and  for  ten  dollars  per  week  com- 
fortable quarters  with  good,  wholesome  food 
may  be  had.  The  girl  who  comes  from  a  good 
family  in  a  small  city  must  count  on  allowing 
at  least  a  dollar  a  day  for  board  and  room,  if 
she  would  live  as  she  is  accustomed  to  at  home. 
In  addition  to  this  she  must  buy  her  lunch  down- 
town. 

I  know  of  several  cases  where  young  women 
have  secured  board  and  room,  or  a  portion  of 
it,  for  domestic  services,  but  to  do  this  one's 
business  hours  must  be  out  of  the  ordinary,  and 
the  girl  herself  must  have  exceptional  strength 
and  endurance.  The  average  working-woman 
needs  every  atom  of  her  strength  for  store,  of- 
fice or  factory,  and  should  rest  when  the  day^s 
work  is  over. 

One  of  the  young  women  referred  to  is  a 


274  LIVING  EXPENSES 


saleswoman  in  a  millinery  establishment,  whose 
manager  permits  her  to  leave  the  store  every 
night  at  5:30,  and  she  does  not  report  in  the 
morning  until  9.  She  waits  on  table  at  the 
place  where  she  boards  at  breakfast  and  dinner, 
and  pays  room  rent  only.  Another  girl,  who 
is  employed  as  secretary  to  an  editorial  writer, 
works  only  from  9 :30  to  5,  and  she  keeps  house 
for  another  business-woman  whose  hours  are 
much  longer.  She  prepares  both  breakfast  and 
dinner,  does  all  the  dishwashing  and  marketing, 
and  has  a  woman  come  in  once  a  week  to  do 
washing  and  cleaning. 

Many  girls  who  desire  to  avoid  both  homes'^ 
and  boarding-houses  write  to  inquire  whether 
it  is  not  possible  to  club  with  other  working- 
girls  and  rent  furnished  rooms  or  a  flat  for  light 
housekeeping  purposes.  Such  an  arrangement 
can  be  made,  but  not  when  the  girl  first  goes  to 
a  strange  city.  Danger  lurks  in  her  ignorance  of 
neighborhoods  and  in  the  too  sudden  intimacy 
with  girls  of  whom  she  knows  nothing.  She 
should  wait  until  she  becomes  acquainted  with 
the  city  and  has  tested  the  girls  who  offer  her 
such  a  partnership.  Girls  who  have  lived  in 
this  way  say  that  the  household  should  not  in- 
clude more  than  four  girls,  and  the  ideal  ar- 
rangement is  for  two. 

To  show  the  out-of-town  girl  that  the  task  of 
finding  desirable  housekeeping  rooms  in  New 


LIVING  EXPENSES 


275 


York  or  any  other  large  city  is  anything  bnt 
easy,  I  offer  here  the  actual  report  of  two  girls 
who  made  some  investigations  at  my  request. 
Their  first  step  was  to  insert  an  advertisement 
in  a  Sunday  paper,  as  follows : 

"Wanted,  by  two  young  women,  one  or  two 
furnished  rooms,  with  privilege  of  light  house- 
keeping.'' 

Their  report  runs  thus: 

Being  employed  near  Madison  Square,  we 
wanted  rooms  within  walking  distance  of  that 
point. 

^'Mrs.  G  J  on  East  Twenty-eighth  Street, 

off  Lexington  Avenue,  had  written  that  she  had 
one  furnished  room  big  enough  for  two  at  one 
dollar  and  seventy-five  cents  per  week.  She 
was  not  in.  I  was  relieved.  One  glance  down 
the  dirty,  dark  hall  of  a  cheap  tenement  was 
quite  enough  for  me  without  the  interview. 

^^Mrs.  G  ,  No.  2,  on  Twenty-fifth  Street, 

between  Second  and  Third  Avenues,  paused  in 
the  act  of  lighting  a  fire  in  a  cook  stove,  which 
promised  to  smoke  out  every  occupant  of  the 
tenement  house,  to  tell  me  that  she  had  the 
cleanest  rooms  on  the  block.  She  then  showed 
me  the  rooms.  The  front  apartment  contained 
only  a  bed,  with  linen  furnished  to  the  last 
lodger,  unwashed  and  piled  upon  it.  The  back 
room,  a  regulation  tenement  kitchen,  contained 
a  filthy  dish  closet  and  a  few  broken  dishes,  also 


276  LIVING  EXPENSES 


an  egg-crate  on  the  window-ledge  filled  wiin 
damp  and  odorous  rags.  She  would  provide  a 
cook  stove  if  we  provided  the  coal.  If  we  want- 
ed to  use  gas,  we  must  hire  our  stove  from  the 
company  and  pay  her  fifty  cents  per  week  for 
gas  drawn  from  her  meter.  Eate,  four  dollars 
per  week.  Greatly  offended  when  I  asked  her 
for  references,  as  we  were  strangers  in  New 
York. 

^^Mrs.  J  ,  ^est  Thirty-fourth  Street 

Stuffy  old  house;  furniture  reminded  me  of 
second-hand  shop.  Landlady  talked  much  and 
nervously,  but  was  singularly  ladylike;  one 
room,  five  dollars  per  week,  and  you  supply 
gas  stove  and  cooking  utensils.  Separate  gas 
meter  for  each  tenant.  No  closet,  and  clothes 
must  be  hung  behind  dirty  plush  curtains. 
After  displaying  the  good  points  of  this  fairly 

large  room,  Mrs.  J         explained  that  it  was 

already  rented.  Going  out  I  met  its  future  oc- 
cupant, a  sadly  bleached  blonde,  still  more  in 
need  of  a  bath  and  clean  raiment.  On  steps  met 
a  veteran  ^bum'  carrying  a  pitcher  of  beer. 

^^Mrs.  G  ,  Sixty-eighth  Street,  near  Cen- 
tral Park  West,  wrote  that  she  had  no  other 
roomers  and  her  husband  was  never  home,  as 
he  worked  in  a  hotel.  An  airshaft  room  at  three 
dollars  per  week  was  her  offering.  Cooking 
could  be  done  in  her  kitchen.  Eoom  could  hard- 
ly hold  one  person  comfortably,  let  alone  two. 


LIVING  EXPENSES  277 


While  we  talked  another  roomer  (in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  she  had  no  other),  appeared  on  the 
scene  and  offered  her  larger  room,  saying  she 
wished  to  economize  during  the  summer.  Apolo- 
gized for  her  appearance  by  saying  that  she  had 
had  a  short  vacation  and  had  taken  '  a  drop  too 
much. '  Landlady  talkative  and  anxious  to  show 
me  the  kitchen,  to  reach  which  we  passed 
through  a  mere  cubby-hole,  in  which  the  hus- 
band, who  was  never  home,  was  comfortably 
sleeping  off  a  jag. 

^'Took  train  for  Harlem.  Found  large,  com- 
fortably-furnished front  room  for  five  dollars 
per  week.  Furniture  old-fashioned,  but  clean, 
not  stuffy.  Little  washroom  off  this  room,  nice 
wardrobe  for  clothes.  Lots  of  closet  room.  We 
must  buy  our  own  cooking  utensils,  and  only 
breakfasts  could  be  cooked  in  washroom. 

^^Mrs.  C         furnishes  references  and  asks 

for  them.  So  clean  it  smelled  good.  As  a  re- 
sult of  investigations  I  would  add :  If  you  are 
a  stranger  in  New  York  do  not  go  into  a  house 
that  neither  gives  nor  asks  references.  Keep 
away  from  the  business  section  and  make  up 
your  mind  to  pay  carfare. 

As  soon  as  a  girl  becomes  established  in  her 
work  and  is  reasonably  assured  of  the  perma- 
nency of  her  position  and  income,  she  is  justi- 
fied in  seeking  some  sort  of  home-life  with  a 
congenial  fellow-worker.    In  every  large  city 


278  LIVING  EXPENSES 


will  be  found  groups  of  two  or  three  girls,  who 
through  economy  and  natural  feminine  adapta- 
bility solved  the  living  problem  in  a  perfectly 
satisfactory  way.  Two  such  girls  I  found  liv- 
ing in  a  small  model  apartment  on  the  extreme 
northern  end  of  Manhattan  Island,  within  walk- 
ing distance  of  the  subway,  which  whisks  them 
to  their  work  in  a  little  more  than  half  an  hour. 
They  are  on  the  top  floor,  which  means  five 
flights  of  stairs  to  climb,  but  they  have  splendid 
ventilation,  sanitary  plumbing,  steam  heat  in 
winter,  and  a  good  breeze  in  summer.  In  their 
wee  parlor  are  an  upright  piano,  a  bookcase 
filled  with  good  reading,  an  artistic  and  power- 
ful lamp,  which  bespeak  pleasant  and  profitable 
evenings  after  the  day's  work  is  done. 

Here  is  the  story  of  their  housekeeping 
progress : 

'^We  started  in  an  attic,''  explained  one  of 
the  girls.  ^^We  were  working  for  seven  dollars 
a  week  in  an  underwear  factory  and  living  in  a 
^home.' 

^^We  waited  until  spring,  when  the  question 
of  steam  would  not  enter  into  our  arrangements, 
and  then  we  struck  out  to  keep  house.  We 
found  a  forlorn  attic,  whose  one  redeeming  fea- 
ture was  its  wealth  of  sunlight  and  fresh  air. 
It  was  atop  an  old-fashioned  house  with  three 
steep  flights  to  climb,  rent  five  dollars  a  month. 
When  we  had  cleaned  and  let  in  the  air  and  sun- 


LIVING  EXPENSES  279 


light,  it  was  sweet  and  wholesome.  Our  fur- 
niture consisted  of  an  iron  bed  and  springs, 
which  we  bought  second-hand  for  four  dol- 
lars (cleaned  and  fumigated  thoroughly),  a  new 
mattress  for  which  we  paid  five  dollars,  three 
sheets  at  forty-nine  cents  each,  two  plates,  cups 
and  saucers,  knives,  forks,  spoons  and  cooking 
utensils,  which,  bought  at  the  five  and  ten-cent 
store,  amounted  to  one  dollar  and  ten  cents ;  six 
towels,  two  chairs  (second-hand),  one  light- 
weight comfortable,  a  washbowl  and  pitcher,  a 
lamp  and  a  one-hole  oilstove,  broom,  scrubbing- 
brush  and  soap.  There  was  running  water ;  also 
we  foimd  two  good-sized  packing-boxes,  which 
we  utilized  for  cupboards.  One  hand-glass  we 
had  between  us  for  a  mirror. 

*^^0f  one  thing  I  want  to  warn  girls — the  wee 
expenses  that  will  arise.  For  instance,  we  next 
had  to  buy  five  cents '  worth  of  nails,  a  hammer 
and  an  oilcan.  When  we  took  possession  of  the 
room  we  had  spent  every  cent  of  our  savings — 
sixteen  dollars  and  twenty-five  cents.  We  had 
no  shades  at  our  windows,  so  we  pinned  up 
newspapers.  We  ate  on  the  packing-box  which 
held  our  dishes  and  food,  but  from  that  moment 
we  could  speak  of  our  home,  and  felt  that  we 
were  working  toward  some  given  point.  The 
first  week  we  lived  on  bread  and  milk,  making 
milk  toast  for  variety. 

^^The  next  week  we  added  fresh  fruit,  pre- 


280  LIVING  EXPENSES 


pared  cereals  and  eggs.  During  that  entire 
summer  our  table  cost  us  five  dollars  or  less  for 
two,  and  our  room  rent  was  one  dollar  and 
twenty-five  cents,  which  represents  individual 
living  expenses  of  a  trifle  over  three  dollars. 
We  had  paid  four  dollars  and  fifty-cents  per 
week  at  the  ^home,'  and  enjoyed  life  less. 

With  the  first  of  September  we  realized  that 
there  was  absolutely  no  way  of  heating  the  attic 
adequately.  We  spent  four  entire  Sundays  in 
flat-hunting.  By  this  time  our  salaries  had  been 
raised  to  ten  dollars  per  week,  and  we  had  saved 
quite  a  neat  sum  during  the  summer.  We  de- 
cided that  our  new  home  should  be  a  permanent 
one. 

^^We  moved  here  October  1st,  two  years  ago. 
We  pay  twenty  dollars  per  month,  or  less  than 
five  dollars  a  week,  house  rent;  our  gas  bills 
average  one  dollar  and  sixty  cents  per  month; 
we  do  our  own  washing,  and  almost  the  first  im- 
portant piece  of  furniture  we  bought  was  a  sew- 
ing-machine, which  we  got,  second-hand,  for 
eight  dollars. 

^^Next  I  remembered  mother's  attic  in  the 
Berkshire  village,  and  wrote,  stating  that  if  she 
could  spare  us  anything  from  the  old  boxes  and 
chests  we  would  be  glad  to  have  them  for  our 
new  home.  Carrie's  aunt  received  a  similar 
letter,  making  it  very  clear  that  we  did  not  ask 
for  new  things — ^we  were  both  too  proud  of  our 


LIVING  EXPENSES  281 


ability  to  make  our  way  in  New  York.  By 
freight,  at  our  expense,  came  two  boxes  that 
were  equal  to  a  ^bride's  shower' — ^bedding, 
quaint  dishes,  silver  pieces,  etc.,  only  everything 
was  second-hand. 

Barring  the  piano  and  lamp,  there  is  hardly 
a  new  thing  in  the  house,  and  yet  you  never 
would  dream  it.  Together  we  make  thirty  dol- 
lars a  week,  and  we  live  for  twelve  or  fourteen, 
simply  and  happily;  so  if  a  girl  is  domestic  in 
her  tastes,  by  all  means  let  her  try  housekeeping 
in  an  attic.'' 

The  figures  presented  in  this  chapter  should 
prove  to  the  girl  who  has  had  a  comfortable 
home  in  a  small  city  or  town  that  she  cannot 
duplicate  home  comforts  in  the  larger  city  on  a 
salary  of  five  dollars  a  week.  Either  she  must 
bring  with  her  funds  to  deposit  in  bank  and 
draw  upon  for  almost  daily  needs,  or  resign 
herself  to  a  period  of  stern  deprivation.  For  if 
she  is  fortunate  enough  to  secure  board  and 
lodging  in  a  working-girl's  home  for  three  dol- 
lars and  fifty  cents  a  week,  the  remaining  dollar 
and  a  half  must  cover  a  multitude  of  small 
expenses. 

Unless  she  is  working  very  near  the  ^^home," 
she  must  buy  her  lunch,  which  represents  at  the 
least  ten  cents  per  day.    In  many  cities,  the 

homes"  are  located  at  some  distance  from 
business  centers.  This  means  carfare,  at  least 


LIVING  EXPENSES 


one  way  each  day,  often  both  trips.  Some  laun- 
dry work  she  mnst  have  done,  even  if  she  is  per- 
mitted to  wash  gauze  underwear,  stockings, 
handkerchiefs,  neckwear  and  other  small  pieces 
at  her  boarding-place.  Her  shoes  will  wear  out 
with  painful  celerity,  and  her  entire  wardrobe 
may  have  to  be  renewed,  piece  by  piece,  before 
the  promised  raise  in  salary  is  forthcoming.  If 
she  comes  to  the  city  unprovided  with  a  black 
dress,  and  works  in  a  store^  her  first  expenditure 
will  be  for  a  black  skirt  and  waist.  In  nearly 
all  city  stores  the  wearing  of  black  and  white 
is  obligatory. 

Figure  this  out,  item  by  item,  and  you  will  see 
that  the  life  of  the  inexperienced  and  untrained 
girl  in  a  great  city  is  drab-colored  indeed.  It 
will  be  months  before  her  income  will  permit 
her  to  purchase  the  pretty  clothes  of  which  she 
dreamed  before  leaving  home,  or  to  indulge  in 
the  small  pleasures  which  she  pictured  as  part 
of  every  city  girPs  life. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  a  girl  has  the  right  sort 
of  business  ability  behind  her  ambition,  if  she 
can  deny  herself  many  little  luxuries  and  for  a 
time  devote  herself  exclusively  to  mastering  the 
line  of  work  she  has  chosen,  the  city  holds  won- 
derful possibilities  for  her.  There  is  always 
room  for  the  girl  with  an  idea,  for  the  girl  who 
does  one  thing  well,  for  the  girl  who  is  willing, 
nay,  anxious,  to  learn  and  to  work.  But  a  girl 


LIVING  EXPENSES 


283 


of  this  sort  must  hold  herself  above  the  cheaper, 
tinseled  life  of  the  big  city.  She  must  learn  to 
decline  invitations  which  represent  late  hours, 
broken  rest,  associations  that  are  anything  but 
uplifting.  She  must  find  her  recreation  in  the 
free  lectures,  the  free  concerts  and  the  free  art 
exhibits  to  be  found  in  all  progressive  cities,  and 
seek  her  companions  at  classes  for  self-advance- 
ment,  gymnasiums  and  clubs  conducted  by  in- 
stitutional churches  or  organizations  like  the 
Young  Women's  Christian  Association. 


THE  END 


